


Kidnapped!

by WithywindlesDaughter



Series: Omegaverse [1]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Bonded Kili & Fili, Depression, Dis is a badass, Eating Disorders, Evil Alpha Warlord, Fili falls defending him, Kili is held prisoner, Kili is kidnapped, M/M, Nori CSI, Nori is a damn shifty bastard, Omegaverse, Ori has a thing for Dwalin, Other, Slavery, Stockholm Syndrome, implied rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-09-19
Packaged: 2017-12-16 02:50:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WithywindlesDaughter/pseuds/WithywindlesDaughter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a young Alpha of the Durin line Fili is waiting for his One to present as an Omega so they may formally court and be bonded, but an evil and ambitious Alpha warlord has other plans for Kili.  In the struggle Fili falls in battle and Kili is lost to his family.  </p><p>A Story In Three.. no Five..  Six!  Six Parts:<br/>1)  "They've Taken Kili!"<br/>2)  "Look Closer"<br/>3)  "Little Sheep"<br/>4)  "Whistles In The Dark"<br/>5)  "Come Find Me"<br/>6)  "Winters End"<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "They've Taken Kili!"

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my series of little stories that have been flooding up and demanding my attention. Everyone in their community knows Kili and Fili are meant for each other, but what if someone else coveted the beautiful little Omega?

** “Kidnapped!” **

**Part One**

 

**_“They’ve Taken Kili!_ **

 

 

 

 

The settlement of Ered Luin was in an uproar, dwarves of all sorts pouring out into the town square, bells ringing, voices shouting.  Dwalin was shoving his considerable bulk through the crowd, not caring who he ran over, roaring for them to clear the way.  Behind him came an anguished Thorin and Dis, Fili clutched in Thorin’s arms, a long arrow shaft protruding from his chest, clothing splattered with blood.  _“Get outta the way!”_ Dwalin bellowed, one step away from pulling a weapon to move the crowd.  _“Move!”_

They forced their way to Oin’s shop where the old healer had cleared off a table.  “Lay him down here.  How did this happen?”  It was clear this was no accident, Fili’s face was bruised and there were cuts on his clothing and a tremendous amount of blood; more than could be accounted for from his wound alone.

 _“Uncle,”_ Fili croaked from the table, his voice hoarse from coughing.  _“They’ve taken Kili!”_

  
 

* * *

 

 

It had been a normal afternoon for the brothers, Fili and Kili, sons of Dis and Nali, nephews to Thorin son of Thrain and Heirs of Durin.  A morning of work in the forge and afternoon free to hunt and roam the woods surrounding their home.  They were still in what was considered the safe part of the forest and the boys were old enough and well-trained enough to watch out for themselves as they relaxed in the good weather.  They were sunkissed and beautiful, Fili the golden Alpha to Kili’s dark Omega, a perfect pair. On any day they could be seen running and laughing together or napping together in the shade, Fili’s protective arms around his precious brother.  They fought back-to-back, like dancing, and when they flanked Thorin as a shieldwall they were unstoppable.  Fili had presented five years before, a proud Alpha who would someday lead his people, and Kili was expected to present soon as an all-too-rare Omega, a precious jewel, a life-giver. 

On this day they were walking down the path not especially caring where they were going.  “We should bring some conies home for supper,” Fili opinioned.

“I’m hot,” Kili put in.  “Let’s go swimming.”

Fili smiled indulgently.  He liked giving his brother his way because a happy Kili was a joyous thing.  “Quick swim and then we’ll roust up some meat for supper.”

Kili turned, walking backwards, his happy smile positively radiating love and affection at his other.  Fili reached out and grabbed him, pulling him in for a kiss.  “Come here you.”  Their forward progress stopped as their lips pressed together, Kili’s hands nestled in the fur at the front of his other’s coat, Fili’s arms around his waist.  They broke their kiss to press foreheads together.  “My One.”

“My One.”

Kili saw his other lean back to look up and the smile faded from his face.  “Kili, get behind me.”

Kili turned to see a group of men standing on the road ahead of them.  His mind registered that they had been alone a moment before, so they must have stepped out of the trees.  They must have been waiting for them.  Fili stepped around him and drew his swords without hesitation.  These men were armed, strange men he did not know, and men from the nearby villages and towns used the main road whenever they visited the Dwarven settlements. 

“No need for that, lad,” called out the man in front.  “We’re just on our way up to the mountain.” 

Fili heard his brother pull his bow and the sound of wood-on-wood as an arrow left his quiver.  “You’re on the wrong road,” he answered.  “Turn around and go back the way you came.”

“Well then we must be lost,” answered the man.  Fili was not foolish enough to believe they could have wandered off the trade road up the small path be accident.  “Mayhaps you and your brother could show us the way.”

 _“He knows Kili is my brother,”_ the heavy thought registered in Fili’s mind.  _“They were looking for us.”_

 _“Go!  Get Uncle and Dwalin,”_ Fili hissed. 

The men were walking towards them now, no weapons drawn but with smiling faces.  “We don’t mean no harm, lad.  We just wanted to talk.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Kili’s voice was hoarse with fear.

“I said go!”

“See?  We’re not even armed,” the man called out to him as the brothers started backpedaling up the path.

“Know this,” Fili spoke loudly.  “I will kill at least one of you.  Who wants to be the one to die this day?”

“Alright,” the man held up his hands.  “Two scared dwarflings.  We’ll go our way and bother you no more.”

A slight sound made Kili turn around, a rustle, perhaps the crack of a twig on the ground.  He spun around to see a large man just a few steps behind them, a knife in his hands.  Without thinking he raised his bow and loosed the arrow.  At this range he could not miss and the man fell backwards, choking on his own blood.

“Oh, now, look what you have done!” the leader shouted and leaped forward in the quick moment Fili had turned to glance back at the noise.  The men had been sent to attack two dwarflings, boys they thought, not trained warriors who already knew what it was to kill, and although they were only bandits there were many more of them than Fili and Kili.  The first three fell to Kili’s bow, yet it was not enough.  Kili drew his sword and pressed his back to his brother’s as the men fanned out through the trees.  They kept working their way back along the path, but Fili’s heart sank as he knew they were no where near enough to the settlement for anyone to hear them. 

The men focused their attack on Fili and Kili sent several reeling back with injuries.  Fili was the heavier fighter a sword in each hand as he blocked attacks and kept the men from closing in on them.  Kili kept anyone from attacking from behind, moving them further and further the way they had come.  The men seemed reluctant to press him, even though Fili was the stronger fighter.  Just when the trees started to this out and Kili thought he could see the meadow opening up the leader shouted “Enough of this!  End it!  Kill him!” 

Kili heard the all-to-familiar thrum of a bowstring and a sickening thud as Fili gasped out and dropped beside him.  _“Fee!”_ Kili stood over him, sword raised.  _“Fee, you have to get up!”_

Fili’s only response was a gurgling cough.  The leader of the men raised his hand.  “That’s enough,” he called.  “It’s over boy.  Put your sword down.”

 _“Rukhsul menu!”_ Kili shouted.  “Stay away from him you filth!”

The bandit motioned to the man holding the bow, the one who had shot Fili in the chest.  “Now listen.  We were told not to harm you, so we won’t, but,” he gestured towards Fili.  “that don’ mean we can’t kill him.  If you want him to live you will put that sword down and come with us.”

Kili knelt down next to Fili where he was on the path, legs crumpled up under him, hand clutched to his chest.  _“I’m sorry,”_ Fili coughed.  _“I’m sorry…”_

Kili helped him to lay back.  _“Fee…”_

“I want you to run, get as far back as you can, leave a sign…”

Kili leaned down and touched his forehead to his other’s and whispered, _“Come find me.”_   Then without looking up he kicked up off the ground and sprinted up the trail as fast as his lean frame would take him.  He could hear them running after him, away from Fili.  That was all that mattered, getting them away from his other.

As he reached the meadow he unbuckled the strap holding his quiver in place and let it drop, arrows spilling out into the dirt.  His bow fell maybe twenty feet beyond and he prayed with all his heart someone would find it.  Prayed they would find Fili before it was too late.

  

* * *

  

Thorin and Dwalin were working out in the small forge near the house, a pile of tools and household items that needed mending on the worktable.  It was easier to do these small jobs here than take them into town and they enjoyed each other’s company.  Even though Thorin was a King there were no formalities between them.  Friends all their life they were warriors both and understood each other without unnecessary talk.  Dwalin picked up on his friend’s edginess.  “What is it?”

Thorin turned and looked out towards the mountain.  “I don’t know.”  His furrowed brows and restlessness gave away his concern.  “Something’s off.”

Dwalin straightened up and looked outward.  “Aye, I’m feelin’ it too.”

Thorin thoughts went immediately to Fili and Kili.  Their absence often meant trouble and he hadn’t seen them since the noon meal.  “Let me go ask Dis where the boys are.”

His sister was standing on the porch in her working skirt and jerkin, a worried expression on her face as she look outwards.  “You feel it too?” she asked.

“Where were they going?” Thorin’s concern had turned into a hackle-raising state of alarm.  As the Alpha of their family it was his responsibility to protect them and he would kill or die to do so.

“They wanted to bring some game home for supper, but they’re overdue,” Dis’ voice was steady.  “Sometimes when it’s hot they go swimming, but I thought they would be home before now.”

“Dwalin, let’s go!”  Thorin called out as Dis went inside for their swords.  He knew better than to tell her to stay at the house.  He guessed the boys would have taken their usual route through the nearby woods on their way to the creek where they liked to swim.  Thorin cursed himself for letting them go alone, even when he knew he couldn’t keep them within his sight every moment of the day.  The three of them fanned out across the meadow, Dis on the trail and Thorin and Dwalin on either side of her, looking for any sign of them. 

Dis cried out when she caught sight of a group of young Dwarves heading towards them up the path.  There were six of them, all from families who lived nearby, and the oldest was carrying a bow in his arms.  “Gamut manan ai-menu,” he called out.  “Lady Dis, we found this on the road.”  The boys bowed low as she approached.

Dis carefully took the bow from him.  “It’s Kili’s,” she ran her hands over the runes carved into the grip.

“Boys, where did you find this?” Thorin knelt down as he asked.

“Down the path into the trees,” they pointed behind them.  Dwalin ran down the path looking down until he saw footprints in the dirt that were too large for a dwarf.

“Men!” he called back. 

Thorin and Dis looked at each other.  “I want you to run home as fast as you can,” Thorin told the boys, who were now looking at them with wide eyes.  “Tell your parents there are men in the woods and that they have attacked my nephews.  Tell them to send word to the town.  As fast as you can now! _Go!”_

The boys looked frightened, as well they should be, they were no more than forty and not much bigger than children.  They bowed quickly and took off running in the direction of the settlement.  Dis stood running her hands over the bow, her son’s bow that he had dropped or had been taken from him, and was afraid.

“Here,” Dwalin showed them.  “One set of small tracks, at least six sets of larger.”

“Just one set?” Thorin asked.

“Kili, trying to get back to us,” Dis replied. 

“The tracks come this way up the path but leave here through the woods,” Dwalin pointed, not certain which set to follow.

“Follow them,” Thorin commanded.  “As far as you can.  Dis come with me.”

Thorin and Dis hurried down the path as fast as they could without obscuring the footprints in the dirt.  It was clear Kili was running full-out coming this direction.  They quickly came upon the spilled quiver of arrows, some of them trampled and broken in the dust.  “These did not fall be accident,” Dis said, clutching the bow.  “He was trying to tell us to come this way.”

“You’re right,” Thorin replied.  He had always taught them to leave a sign in times of emergency, and these had been left in a way which said Kili could do nothing else.  “Let’s keep going.”

They were so intent upon watch the path for further signs they almost did not see the figure lying on the path ahead of them.  _“Thorin!”_   It was Fili, his gold and burgundy clothing stained with blood and caked with dirt.  He was lying on his back on the path, a man-size arrow shaft protruding from his chest, his face bruised and swollen.  Dis knelt over him and brushed his blood-caked hair from his face.  _“Oh, Mahal, my boy!”_

There were bodies further down the path, men with their chests cleaved open or pierced by Kili’s arrows.  It was clear the boys had put up a good fight and had been trying to get back up the path when Fili had fallen.  Thorin did not recognize any of them, not from the settlement or any of the towns or villages he had visited.  They didn’t bear any badge or signal, nothing to say who they were or where they had come from.  They did not look to be farmers or tradesmen.  Clearly the only reason they were here was to find the boys.  Fili struck down, Kili taken and Thorin had a sick feeling he knew why.

“Thorin he’s alive,” Dis cried out, her voice wretched.  “We have to get him to Oin!”

Her voice snapped him back to the present.  He returned to her and carefully scooped his beautiful blond boy up into his arms.  “Go ahead of me,” he told her.  “Keep watch for the others.”

 _“Kili?”_ Fili started coughing in his arms, flecks of blood appearing at the corners of his mouth.

“Do not speak,” Thorin replied.  “Let us take care of you.”

Fili turned his head and looked outwards, raising his hand and reaching out and Thorin knew he was looking for his brother, his Omega. 

“We’ll find him,” Thorin swore to him.  “If we have to burn through every settlement, town and city from here to Erebor!”

 

 

 TBC

 

 


	2. "Look Closer"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nori has his own methods and motive for finding out who took Kili. Kili falls into evil hands and is consigned to an uncertain fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this was supposed to be a quick three chapters but the boys have gotten involved and become very demanding! Nori wanted in on the action and things just keep getting longer and longer. Thanks for putting up with me!

 

 

Kili lay bound and gagged under a tarp in the back of a wagon bouncing down what much have been a very rutted cartway.  It couldn’t have been the trade road, that was for the most part smooth.  He tried to tell where they were, tried to gauge which way and when they had left the main route, tried to pinpoint the direction back home.  He knew his one hope of making it home was to get loose and make it to the road where there was at least some chance of someone passing by, or maybe even his family looking for him

_His family.  Ma._   He started to feel like his heart was bleeding out.  _Fee…_

And the thought of Fili lying under him on the path, gasping for breath, unable to stand.  _“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”_   Soon the blindfold over his eyes was soaked with tears and he failed to care at all where he was or where he was going. 

 

* * *

 

 

“I followed the tracks all the way to the trade road,” Dwalin reported to the Dwarves assembled in the meeting hall of Ered Luin.  “After that there were no more footprints, only horse tracks and wheel marks.”

“The bodies we found bore no badge or crest,” Thorin continued.  “They look to be bandits, but there’s nothing to tell us where they came from.”

Towards the back of the crowd two Dwarves stood craning their heads, trying to catch everything that was said.  The warriors had pushed up front, ready to group together in search parties, but everyone wanted to know what had happened.  For the most part they had been on good terms with the men from the surrounding villages, trading, exchanging news, sometimes banding together in times of danger.  The idea of anyone attacking the settlement, especially a family that was held in such high regard, was both frightening and an outrage.  The younger Dwarf, just shy of his majority, turned tentatively towards his much older brother and whispered, “I don’t understand why anyone would want to attack Fili and Kili.”

The older Dwarf put a protective hand on his arm and replied softly, “Shhhh.  We’ll talk about it later.”  He knew why the boys had been attacked and he didn’t want to say it out loud, no one did.  But he turned and looked over his shoulder at his other brother, pressed into the shadows along the back wall, watching the crowd.  Their eyes met and he knew that they were both holding the same thoughts.  _“They took one,”_ that look said. _“What’s to stop them from taking another?”_

 

* * *

 

 

The cart continued to bump along, the lone occupant under the tarp now quiet and still.  Their progress halted and heavy boots stepped up onto the baseboards.  A hand drew back the tarp and a voice spoke, _“Still with us little dwarf?”_

 

* * *

 

 

The search parties went out, warriors, scouts, hunters, all divided into groups fanning out into the countryside.  They couldn’t be sure if Kili hadn’t been taken for ransom, nor where he might be, camp, village or town. 

“They knew who we were,” Fili told him from his bed with the Houses of Healing.  He had wanted to lead out one of the search parties, Oin had refused to let him leave.

“I’ll not have you tearin’ all my handiwork to pieces, lad.”  The old healer was an experienced hand with reluctant patients.  “You’ll only slow them down.  The faster you let this heal the faster you can be out there with them.”  He had left strict instructions that he not be allowed to leave, but that didn’t stop the young Alpha from restlessly fussing.

“They knew we are brothers and they had orders not to hurt Kili, that’s what they said.”  Thorin pondered this information as he sat at Fili’s bedside.  “They were looking for us.”

Thorin had hoped that it was a kidnapping for ransom.  The Erebor Dwarves had been able to take almost nothing with them when they fled the mountain, but there were some who believed they were still holding onto at least some part of those fabled riches.  The truth be known they had precious little, what few things they had carried away with them sold to buy food and medicine through the harsh journey to Ered Luin.  But if he had to he could raise the money.  Now Fili’s words made him believe what he had been dreading, that whoever took Kili had no interest in returning him, every interest in disappearing to where they could never find him.  Kili was an as yet unbonded Omega of royal blood and they had been expecting him to present within the next year.  And even though they had been waiting for that event for them to began the formal rituals of courtship, Fili and Kili had left no doubt in anyone’s mind that they belonged together. 

Thorin reached out and stroked Fili’s forehead.  “I swear to you,” his voice was rough with emotion.  “We will bring him home, no matter what.”

 

* * *

 

 

As Thorin walked out of the healer’s door he was surprised to be met by a Dwarf he did not know.  “Nori, son of Kori, at your service.” The Dwarf before him bowed, but not low and he did not take his eyes off of Thorin. 

Thorin returned the formality.  “I knew your father in Erebor.”

“And you know my brothers, Dori and Ori.”  Thorin understood why he didn’t recognize him, the third Ri brother did not live in Ered Luin and when he did he certainly didn’t run in any of the circles that the Heirs of Durin would.  In fact, they would never meet at all except by chance or unless he was hauled up in front of the High Court for judgment.  Dwarves like Nori made it a point that Dwarves such as Thorin did not know who they were, so why was he here now?

“How can I help you Nori,” Thorin was more impatient than curious, he did not have the time at present to be dealing in small matters or polite exchanges.

“I need to look at the bodies of the men that were brought in.”  Well, if anything he got straight to the point.

“I don’t see how…” Thorin started but he didn’t get to finish.

“I could get in myself,” Nori cut in.  “But I think you would want to be there.”

 

* * *

 

 

Thorin watched this strange Son of Kori carefully inspect first the bodies of the men killed in the attack on Fili and Kili and then their gear.  Nori had his older brother Dori’s penchant for elaborately braided hair but looked more like his younger brother Ori.  His clothes had a foreign cut to them that Thorin recognized as from the east.  Instead of a sword or axe he wore a matched set of fleshing knives across the back of his belt and Thorin strongly suspected there were a lot more that he could not see.  He couldn’t tell what it was he was looking for but they hadn’t found anything to tell him who these men were.

Nori pointed to the first four bodies, large, rough men, three of whom had fallen beneath Fili’s blades.  “These four, sell-swords.  Not very good, but big.  Meant to take on a fighter.”

“How can you tell?” Thorin wanted to know.

“See here,” Nori gestured.  “Big thick hands and fingers, like yours, no offence.  They’re strong, don’t need to be too smart.  In fact, not too smart if they thought it would be easy.  See the scars?  Lot’s of street fights, bar fights, that’s how they get a reputation.  Their weapons are the best they could afford to buy.  Lose your life on a bad blade, but nothing fancy.  Fancy costs extra.”

Thorin picked up one of the swords in question.  It was a very acceptable blade, not as good as Dwarf make, but good by the standards of men.

“These last two,” Nori went on.  “They didn’t account on a Dwarf using a bow or they would’ve been more careful.  This one,” Nori lifted the hand of the smaller man.  He had long, graceful fingers like Nori, and he wasn’t covered in the same hard scarring the others were.  “He’s a thief.  Not hired to fight, hired to open doors or windows and not wake up everyone in the house.”  Nori picked up the man’s boots and carefully worked several metal rods out of the lining.  “Lockpicks.  Probably more in his coat.”

“We didn’t find those,” Thorin said.  He had been present when they stripped the bodies.  The dead did not bother him but he needed their secrets.  

“Nor would you if you didn’t know where to look.  Thief don’t stay in business if the guard keeps takin’ his tools.”  He moved to the last body on the table but didn’t move forward to touch it.  This last man had puzzled Thorin and Dwalin greatly.  He was small and rather nondescript, dressed more like a tradesman on the outside but they had found over a dozen knives of various shapes and sizes, all very good Dwarf make and from the looks of them expensive.  He had no tattoos, unlike the others, but there were strange scars in patterns all over his body where they would be hidden by his clothing.  His gear was nondescript as well, no armor or obvious signs of money, just what the average laborer would wear.  He would have fit into any crowd on the street or inside a tavern.

“This,” Nori nudged one of the long, thin blades they had found concealed on the body.  “This is a killing knife.  You don’t fight with it, you don’t show it off.  Slides in between the ribs into the heart, give it a twist and a man will be gone in three beats, no shouting, no noise at all.”

Thorin looked at the somber expression on the Dwarf’s face and decided he didn’t want to know how this Son of Kori had acquired that knowledge.  “What are the scars?”

“Assassin needs to be quiet,” replied Nori.  “They’re taught how to bleed and take pain without making a sound.  Mun like this could slide through a crowd and you’d never see him.  Sit next to you in a tavern, you wouldn’t remember him.”

“Come in through a window?” Thorin asked.

“They’d find you all in your beds like you was sleepin.”

“Does any of this tell you where they came from?”

“Sell swords are cheap, most anyone can hire them, expect to lose a few on the way.”

“Wouldn’t the others go back for them?”

“No.  That’s the rule.  You fall you crawl.”  Nori turned.  “A good thief, that’s a little more in demand.”  He smiled a little.  “Thieves a’plenty, but you need a good one to get you into a well-guarded house without bein’ heard.  This one,” he gestured towards the last.  “His services come at a premium, gold and on his terms.  You bring them in for special jobs.”

“So you think this was all planned.”

Nori scoffed.  “I know it was.  This is no bandit gang roaming the countryside.  These men were all recruited for a job.  They may have come from different places but someone paid a lot of money for their services.  If it were me,” he glanced back at Thorin.  “I would have waited ‘till nightfall, slipped into the house and slipped out with your boy unseen.  He would have been gone when you woke up and you’d never have known where he went.”

Thorin thought about that.  Fili and Kili shared the same room, they always had.  If either of them had awoken to find someone in the room with them…  He shook the thought off.  “So running into the boys in the woods?”

“Bad luck on their part.  They was likely planning to wait until nightfall.  Didn’t count on the boys comin’ down the path.” 

“But still we don’t know where they came from, or who hired them.”

Nori went to the sell-swords bags and started rummaging through them.  He tossed out little bits of things he seemed to find unimportant until he found their leaf pouches.  He rubbed it between his fingers, smelling it carefully.  “These four all came from the same town, bought their pipe weed from the same market.  These two even bought their pouches from the same leatherworker.  Local boys, probably did jobs together regular.”  He checked the leaf on the thief.  “This one traveled, a lot.  This is imported, not bad either.  He made money, or lifted it from someone who did.”

“And the other?”  Thorin noted that Nori didn’t touch the other’s pack.

“There won’t be anything there to tell you who he was or where he came from.  Man in that business doesn’t get caught if he’s any good.”

“And if he is caught?”

“Then there’s no one who will come pay his bail.  If he hangs, no one will claim the body.”  He shoved one of the pouches of pipe weed into his tunic.  Some of the weapons the sell-swords had on ‘em carry the same maker’s mark.  See if you can find the smith who made them, common sell-sword don’t roam far from home.  I’ll see what I can find out on the thief.”  He stood up and nodded to Thorin, then turned towards the door.

“Nori,” Thorin called after him.  Nori stopped and turned back as Thorin approached him.  He pulled a small pouch from his tunic and pressed it into the smaller Dwarf’s hand.  “I am grateful for any help you can give us.  Let me know when you need more.”

Nori weighed the pouch in his palm.  Gold.  Enough to travel on and keep him in the seedier taverns his kind did business in.  Enough to pay for information.  He tucked it away in his coat.  “If I’m going to be gone my brother will need protection.”  He didn’t add that he could hire out his own protection but Dori wouldn’t permit it.

Thorin didn’t need to ask which brother _.  If they took one they could very well come for another._   “I’ll see to it.  Let Dori know.”

 

* * *

 

 

Kili felt the wagon jolt to a stop, heard the sound of boots on the wagon bed and did not care.  He was sore, sleepless and heartsick.  He wasn’t even sure how many days it had been.  They had made few stops on the road and he was only allowed out of the wagon for a few minutes at a time.  At first he looked for an opportunity to run, he could survive in the wild long enough to find a road or village, but they were expecting him to run and there was not a moment they were not within arms reach of him, watching him.  So now he waited and wondered.  He had had a lot of time to think.  These men had been looking for them, had orders not to harm him, but why?  Fili had told him to run, but he couldn’t.  He couldn’t leave his brother behind.

Now he heard sounds around the wagon, men and dwarves talking, laughter, horses.  They had stopped somewhere.  _Dwarves!_  They would not suffer one of their own to be treated this way!  The tarp rolled off him and the familiar voice spoke above him.  _“End of the road for you little dwarf.  Out you go!”_ He was pulled out of the wagon and stood upright, his binds, blindfold and gag still in place.  There were words exchanged in low voices, he could _hear_ Dwarves around him!  Why in Mahal’s name weren’t they doing anything? 

_“Let us see what you have brought for me!”_   Kili could hear him before he could smell him, but when he could smell him it was an unwashed body to go with the rough, heavily-accented speech, deep in voice, loud, arrogant and above all of it the unmistakable rank stench of Alpha.

_“No!”_ Kili’s mind reeled.  _“No! No! NO!”_ he wanted to shout.  Instead all he could do was stand there.

His gag and blindfold were pulled roughly off and the Dwarf standing before Kili was thick, broad and tall with a rough face and long grey beard.  He grabbed Kili’s face in his meaty fist and looked him over.  “He’s young,” he appraised.  “Very pretty.”

“Take your hands off me or I’ll show you pretty!” Kili growled back at him through clenched teeth.  The onlookers who had crowded around to watch laughed.

“He’s unbonded,” commented the man who pulled Kili from the wagon.  “Just like you asked for.”

“What say you?” the huge Alpha buried his rough face in Kili’s neck and inhaled his scent.  “You breed yet?”

Kili shoved back and spit in his face, an act which drew laughter from the crowd.  “Got spirit that one!” an onlooker called out.  “He’ll be lively for sure!” called another.

_“Fuck you!”_ Kili shouted back, blood boiling with anger. 

“Oh, I will that,” replied the big Dwarf.  “Hold him down.”  Kili was thrown down to the ground and held by many hands.  He screamed in rage as rough hands yanked his breeches open and shoved down between his legs.  He kicked and bit and screamed as someone touched him in places where only his Alpha had ever had permission to go.  Evidently the big Dwarf affirmed what he was looking for because he stood up and clapped his hands together.  “Is good!” he proclaimed.  “Bring the gold!”

He looked down at Kili.  “Take this one inside and put him in a room.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, so angst and foreboding! And the worst is yet to come.
> 
> Bwa-ha!


	3. Little Sheep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nori and Ori have a heart-to-heart over the new threat to the Omegas of Ered Luin. Kili finds himself in a place he doesn't want to be. Fili comes to terms with his guilt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I haven't taken to long with this update. I wrote it and realized how unhappy I was with it so I went back and pulled a rewrite of almost it's entirety. Thank you for sticking with me! No beta - the many mistakes are mine.

** “Kidnapped!” **

**Part Three**

 

**_“Little Sheep”_ **

 

 

 

“But I don’t understand why you have to go and why do I need a guard?”  Ori was upset and everything his older brothers were telling him was just making him more upset. 

Nori glanced up at his older brother before replying.  “I have a job I have to do Ori,” he said softly.  “But I wanted to make sure you’re safe while I’m away.”

“This is about Kili, isn’t it?”  The little Dwarf was worried.  Kili was his friend.  More than that, he was another Omega, and his loss had shaken their community. 

“Thorin has offered a guard for every omega in the settlement.”  That was Dori’s way of answering without answering.  “Nori is going to go out with some of the search parties to take news of his abduction to cities and towns down the trade route and I can’t be with you all the time.”

The truth was Nori was going to be doing no such thing, but only he, Thorin, Dwalin and Dis knew that he would be travelling alone in order to tap into his own network.  “I will feel better if I know your safe, Ori.  And Dori has agreed to send you for fighting lessons!”  Dori had spluttered angrily at the suggestion, but in the end knew it only made sense.  They had agreed he needed to learn how to escape and to use projectile weapons so as to protect his scribes hands from damage. 

Ori made his grumpy face, eyes shifting back and forth between his two brothers.  “Of course, you could always stay in the house with me all day,” Dori offered.

“Fine, a guard then.  Will he have to stay with me in the library while I work?”

“I don’t think that would be necessary.  The archives are restricted to outsiders and you’ll be surrounded by dwarves you know.”  Replied Dori evenly.  He was worried to the point he couldn’t sleep at night and it was beginning to tell in the dark circles and worried hands.  “Now I have some things to speak to your brother about.”  Once Ori was upstairs Dori poured them both a fresh cup of tea.  Nori noticed the slight shaking of his hands as the spout rattled against the edges of their cups.  Whatever their differences the two elder sons of Kori were at least united in this.  “I don’t know what else to do, Nori.”

“What else can we do?  Guard them, guard our borders better.  They won’t put up with being cloistered.”  Nori ran his spoon back and forth between his fingers.

“In Erebor they had their own part of the mountain all to themselves,” Dori added honey to his cup and stirred.

“Is that so?”  Nori looked up.  “Just the Omegas?”

“Even the King had to ask their permission to enter.  They had great political influence and it was the greatest privilege to be summoned there,” Dori reminisced.  “Not even the King was guaranteed an Omega for a mate.  If you were careless or boorish around them they would have nothing more to do with you.  They were a force unto themselves.”

“Did you ever see it?”  Nori slurped down his tea.

“Once, when I was a child.  Our mother made their clothing and I went with her to attend to a robe that had been damaged.”  Dori tapped his cup thoughtfully.  “It was like nothing you can imagine, so beautiful.”

“Why did so few make it out?”

“Their part of the mountain was next to the treasury.  They were considered more valuable than all the gold or jewels we possessed.  They couldn’t get out.”

Nori set his cup down.  “Keep him safe, Dori.”

 

* * *

 

 

Kili was shoved into a small set of rooms, forcefully divested of everything but his tunic and trews and left alone, the door closing heavily behind the guards and the bolt sliding home with a weight that echoed inside him.  He curled up on the ground, arms wrapped around himself, weeping silently.  In all his years no one had ever handled him like that, held him down, placed hands on those places without his consent.  He felt rage and helplessness in equal measure and finally shame that even as a warrior he could not keep them from doing it.  He wanted to wash.  He wanted to wash off the feeling of those rough hands and make himself clean.  Wash away the sound of their laughter.  Since coming of age that place had been something only he and Fili had shared together, sacred, private.  He put his head down against his knees and forced himself to breath deeply and slowly.  _“Calm yourself,”_ he could hear Thorin’s voice. _“Think only of what you have to do now.”_

 _“What I have to do now,”_ Kili said to the voice in his head. _“is to find a way out of here.”_

He went to the window and pushed the shutter open only to find it barred on the outside.  Even if he managed to jump he would at least break an ankle.  He could see out for quite a distance, he was high up in the keep.  Some kind of a stone hold with high walls and a lot of men and dwarves going in and out of the gates.  Thorin and Dwalin had spoken of warlords who made their own holds, said they were dangerous and to be avoided.  Now he understood why.  Once those gates were closed it would take a small army to break them down.  _“Thorin doesn’t have an army.  I will have to get outside of those walls.”_

His cell was small, but meant to be lived in with a small water closet and an equally small storage closet next to it, a bed, a large chest full of linens, a table and chair and a washstand but no mirror.  The bed itself was an old-style rope-strung bedframe.  _Rope._   With rope he could possibly lower himself from the window if he could get a bar loose.  With rope he could kill or restrain a guard.  He put his head on the mattress and thanked Mahal and Yavanna for small favors. 

 _“What I have to do now,”_ he told the voice. _“is survive, and when the time comes, find my way back home.”_

 

* * *

 

 

Nori found his little brother still awake in his room, a book cradled in his lap but he wasn’t looking at the pages.  “Sleepless night?”

“I was thinking about Kili.”  Ori carded the edge of his blanket through his fingers.  “Where do you think he is now?”

Nori looked for a long time at his little brother.  He didn’t want to frighten or upset him, but he also knew that Dori would never be able to tell him the truth.  Nori sat on the edge of the bed.  “I think he is somewhere no one wants us to find him.”

“You think someone took him because he’s an Omega?”

 “Yes I do.  It’s a criminal act of the highest order, so it would have to be someone who could not get an Omega any other way.”

Ori thought about that for a moment.  “So someone who is not respectable or of noble blood.  Maybe someone no Omega would want to bond with.”

 _“Clever boy,”_ thought Nori.  “Someone undesirable but with enough gold to pay to have an Omega brought to him.”

“And they wouldn’t be in a town or city because it would eventually get out that he was holding Kili by force.”  Nori wondered just when his brother had gotten so smart.  “Doesn’t that narrow down the places you need to search?”

“Yes, but those places will be harder to search, and I need you to not speak of it to anyone, not Fili or Dori or even Thorin.”

“Because you don’t want whoever took Kili to know you’re coming.”

Nori leaned forward until their foreheads were touching.  “Precisely right.”

“Thank you for doing this, helping to find him I mean.”

“They would do the same if it was you.”

“Could it have been me?”

“Yes.”

“So that’s why the guard?

“If they took one they could come back for another.”

“Nori… I’m afraid.”

Nori sat back and pulled several small balls of wool from his pocket, balls of brown, grey and purple fluff in muted shades.  “Don’t worry little brother.  Thorin has a guard watching over you but I do as well.  Dori just doesn’t know it.”

“Where did you get those?”  Ori looked at the wool balls.

“From Dori’s knitting basket.”  Ori smirked.  This used to be a favorite bedtime game whenever Nori was in residence.  “They make good sheep.”  He gave Ori a moment to arrange his “flock” of wool yarn balls on his bedside table and began to sing softly. 

_“Little sheep, go to sleep, your shepherd’s here to guard you._

_Wooly sheep, don’t you bleat, we’ll move on tomorrow…”_

 

* * *

 

 

“You need more socks,” Dis nervously went through Fili’s travel pack, making sure he had everything he needed to be on the road for several weeks.  “And smallclothes.  It’s going to cold soon, you’ll need to start dressing in layers.”

“Mum, I’ll be okay.”  He waited impatiently for her to roll and stuff more clothing into his pack.  He felt like Kili was out there, waiting for him to come find him.  “I have to go.”

Dis took his head in her hands and pressed her forehead against his.  “Fili,” she closed her eyes.  She was so afraid now.  Frightened that she was sending one son out just to disappear after the other and not return.  She took a deep breath.  “Fili, I almost lost both my sons on that day.  You are all my life, the two of you.  I need you to come back to me, no matter what you do or do not find.”

“I won’t stop looking until I find him.”  Fili hugged her, aching in the knowledge that each of them was hurting in their own private way over the loss of his brother.  Not for the first time since that day he felt all the breath going out of his body and struggled to inhale.  “The last thing he said to me…” he choked.  “He told me to come find him, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

 

* * *

 

 

“I’m not putting those on.”  Kili stared sullenly at the clothing the servant had laid out on his bed for him. 

The dwarrowdam raised her eyebrows and motioned with her head towards the bed.  “Then go out naked, but he will have you in the hall tonight.” 

Kili turned away from her.  He didn’t want anyone, servants or the especially the guards, to see him upset.  He wouldn’t give them that.  “Tell the guards to wait outside.”

She turned.  “Out, both of you.  You don’t need to watch him dress.”  She wasn’t a bad sort, just someone assigned to take care of his needs and to make sure he behaved.  She picked up the plush tunic.  “Come, boy, I will help you.”  The clothing Greylock had sent for him was rich, a deep green tunic and dark grey trews with soft slippers to match and covered in silver embroidery that he couldn’t guess what the thread must have cost.  The cut was trim and hugged his frame, accenting his long legs.  She combed his hair and efficiently braided it back into a single braid, revealing his neck and jawline, fastening it with a clip.  “Try not to ruin these,” she advised him not unkindly.  “There may not be any more if you do and I don’t think you relish the idea of sitting in front of his men in your bare skin.”  He nodded.  The first time she had dressed him and tried to bring him out he had made a run for the front gate only to be brought down by a guard who punched him in the face, his blood soaking the plush tunic.  Greylock had killed the guard and sent him back to his room. She tapped on the cell door.  “He is ready.” 

The guard stepped inside, a length of looped rope in his hands.  “No runnin’ for you tonight,” he told Kili as he tied his wrists securely in front of him.  “Yur for supper!”  The other guard laughed as Kili’s wrists were bound together and he was led out, the dwarrowdam following.  He walked along without speaking but he tried to memorize every passageway, count every door.  All he knew for sure was the hall was on the ground floor, on stone, and somewhere near the front of the keep.  He needed to learn every pathway through here that he could find because, one way or another, he was going to get himself out.  _“Get out before you present,”_ the voice kept repeating in his mind as he counted doors.  _“Seven, eight, down the stair to the right, wooden floor.  One, two, three…”_

 

* * *

 

 

Fili pushed his group as far as they could go until darkness made the ponies stumble and they were nodding in the saddle.  Every day had been the same, endless riding, endless road, endless loaves of cold cram, questions and offers of a reward of every man and dwarf they met.  Every night he lay cold in his bedroll thinking about what might be happening to his brother, speaking to him softly, _“Wait for me nadad, I will find you.”_   He always took first watch, the fear that Kili might have presented and been claimed against his will chasing sleep until he could keep his eyes open no longer.  Thorin had advised him to go to the larger towns and cities in hopes that the notices they had posted and the offer of gold for information would finally have loosened somebody’s tongue.  They checked every market, every smithy, looking for the craftsmen who had made either the blades or the pouches the dead men carried. 

The pace of their search made Fili’s head ache, short-tempered and curt with those around him.  He wanted to walk into taverns and start shaking people, make them tell what they knew, make them tell what they were hiding from him.  He wanted to burn the towns down as he found them, leaving nothing but ash and bone in his wake.  Finally an older Alpha put a hand on his shoulder.  “You are pushing too hard, young one.  Wear yourself down now and you won’t be any good to anyone once we find him.”

“How can I find him if these people won’t talk?” Fili was coming to the end of reason, convinced that Kili was here, somewhere, and he just could not get to him. 

“Secrets cannot stay secrets forever.  Someone will see the notices, start thinking about the gold.  Those who took him have no honor and no one will be so loyal to them as to pass on that reward.”  The older dwarf was long in the beard and Thorin had sent him along specifically to keep an eye on his frantic nephew.

Fili looked at the fire while he considered his words.  He felt the need to rise and stride into the nearest settlement and kill someone.  To start killing men and dwarves alike until enough blood poured to make the earth itself cry out.  He had become dangerous and irrational, not just because of the danger to his One but out of his own futility.  “What would you do?  What would you do if it was your mate they took?”

“I would take our my axe and such a wailing would arise as to be heard in the Iron Hills.  I would kill every man I saw and burn every tavern and brothel in every city until my king hunted me down like the mad dog I was and I would regret none of it.  But we can’t be like that; we don’t take innocent lives and destroy what is not ours.  We’d be no better than orcs if we did.”  He pulled out his pouch of leaf and offered some to Fili.  “Try to put your mind into a better place.  Save your rage for the day we find those who took him.”

Fili gratefully accepted the offer of smoke, the words of the older Alpha offering him some sense of calm.  He bowed his head in resignation.  “I have never been angry like this before.  Never been so helpless to do anything.”

“Then consider it a test.  Not for nothing are we so protective of our mates.”  The other dwarf, Geirmund, pointed to a ragged scar across the left side of his forehead.  “Another Alpha tried to court my mate before we were bonded.  He challenged me for the right to offer beads to my Odne.”

Fili started at the thought of another dwarf challenging his right to court his Omega.  Although technically they were not yet bonded by law, Kili had made it clear that Fili was the only Alpha that held his interest. “Did Odne want this other dwarf to court him?”

“I was young and had not proven myself to him yet,” Gerimund replied.  “In the end it is always the Omega’s choice to mate or to not.  It’s up to the Alpha to demonstrate that he will be a good provider and protector as well as a good lover.  I hadn’t properly gotten his attention yet.”

“So what did you do?”

“I stood up before Odne’s tribe at the Green Fest and asked the elder’s permission to approach him with courting beads, hoping for a summer courtship and a harvest bonding.  I brought the traditional gifts of steel and leather to prove my craft and gold to prove my worth but I had not yet gone out into true battle.  There was another Alpha who also wanted the right to court and he challenged me.  Since Odne showed no preference between us there was a _Hurmel-Uhurud_ declared and I walked into the ring with my axe to prove myself worthy.”

Fili blew a smoke ring into the air.  “I take it you won?”

“No, he cleaved my head open right there,” Geirmund fingered the scar as if it still hurt.  “I was in love and very determined but I was young and my opponent was much larger than I was and had a lot more experience with a weapon to boot.”

“So how did you end up bonded to Odne if you lost?”

“The other Alpha, he was a goats-ass of a dwarf.”  Geirmund spit into the dirt at the memory.  “So full of himself he tried to claim his right to Odne then and there, in front of his family no less!  Odne refused him and the elders sent him packing.”

“For good reason.  Imagine being bonded to a dwarf like that.”

“When I recovered enough to put myself upright I found my Omega waiting for me, so I guess I had made a good impression after all.  He said if I was enough of a fool to stand up in battle to someone twice my size then he was enough of a fool to accept my beads.  Scar still hurts though, when it gets cold, but it was worth it.”

Fili’s hand came up on it’s own and rubbed the spot on his chest where the arrow went in.  It was healed enough for him to travel but pulled painfully when he worked out with his swords.  He thought of all the scars he had seen on Thorin and Dwalin, Azanulbizar scars, and wondered if they still hurt this way.  They never showed it if they did, or maybe he had just never looked for it.  “You did well in defending him, lad.”  Geirmund’s words took him by surprise.  “You put yourself between him and them with no thought for yourself and fought to the death to save him.”

“But I didn’t save him.”  Fili was quiet in his shame.  He hadn’t saved his Omega, his One, his brother.  Kili had still been taken.  “I fell.  I failed.”

“You got him all the way back to the meadow and left a trail of bodies in your wake.  I helped your uncle bring those men back to town.  They were sell-swords, make their living by beating and killing those who are weaker than they are.  They thought you’d be an easy mark, a little dwarf out on his own.  If they’d known they were up against an Heir of Durin they’d have brought a dozen more.”

Fili didn’t have an answer to that.  “Aye, well, maybe it’s better they think I am dead.  They won’t look for me to be coming for them.”

Geirmund nodded.  “I can say this for you, I’d stand beside you in battle on the worst day and be proud.  Your uncle and Dwalin trained you up right.  You’ve got strength, honor and courage and if any dwarf says otherwise he’ll be pickin’ his teeth up off the floor.”

Fili finally broke a smile.  “Thank you.  I am honored.”  He tucked his pipe into his jacket and rubbed the back of his neck.  “I am glad you’re with us.”

“Get some sleep.  We’ll hit the next town before midday, check the smith and the marketplace and then go to the taverns.  But no one will talk to you if you look like you’re going to punch them in the face.”

Fili made his way to his bedroll and lay down, turning his face to the night sky as a thousand stars looked down upon him.  _“Put yourself in a better place…”_   A better place.  He thought of his home in Ered Luin, his mother’s kitchen warm in winter, Durin’s Day when they all gathered outside to watch the skies, the grotto…  The grotto was under the gently tumbling falls where the creek wound its way down the mountainside, a secret chamber behind the sheer curtain of water where Kili had kissed him for the first time.  Kili had been the one to find it, playing in the falls when they were younger.  It had become their hiding spot from the heat and from adults and later where they would tryst with gentle touches and soft words, the light filtering in on their bare skin through the crystal-colored fall.  Fili lay back under the eyes of the universe and his heart lightened as it reached out to that place, at peace, at least for this night, and tomorrow he would start again.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, it pains me to leave them all at such a difficult crossroad! Things get darker in the next chapter.
> 
> I am so ashamed...
> 
> Hurmel = honor of (all) honors  
> Uhurud = battle


	4. “Whistles In The Dark”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kili finds that he cannot escape captivity on his own and doesn't know that Fili is searching for him. Nori strikes out alone into the dwarven underworld while in Ered Luin an unlikely companionship is developing between one small scribe and one very large warrior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ THE UPDATED TAGS.
> 
> I had a very difficult time writing this part and even though I knew where it was going it took a long time to write. Please feel free to let me know what you think.

 

 

 

 

Kili pounded down the stone hallway in his bare feet, darting through the crowd, shoving people out of his way, knocking down crates and baskets in his wake as he made for the big doors open to the outside.  His hair streamed out unbound, voices shouting behind him as he bolted up and over a cart towards a string of horses picketed on the far side of the yard.  A flying tackle brought him to his knees from behind and he twisted around, hammered the man in the face with his fist and kicked him in the head as the man’s grip loosened.  Then he was back up and sprinting towards the horses, yanking a leadrope  and climbing up on a horse’s back.  He dug his heels in and saw his freedom briefly before him until it all came crashing down, the horse screaming under him as crossbow bolts brought it to earth in a pile of blood and ruin.  Kili was pinned by his leg under the thrashing animal, as he struggled to push it off him he didn’t see the crowd part and a pair over overlarge boots walk up beside him.  A meaty fist slammed a knife down into the foaming animal, silencing it’s cries.  Then Greylock was looking down at him, a calloused hand reaching for his hair and Kili was very afraid. 

“You give guard good run.  Maybe I should put bet on you.”  The crowd around them murmured with laughter.  The big dwarf pressed the dripping blade to Kili’s face.  “Next time,” the blade slid up his cheek.  “I put out eyes and give you to men.  _Yah?”_

Kili closed his eyes and whispered, “I’m sorry.  I won’t do it again.”

“Again is last time for you.”  Greylock stood.  “Take inside.  Bring to hall tonight.”

Kili’s minder shouldered her way through the crowd.  “Get that animal off!”  The dwarrowdam got her hands under his arms and helped him to stand.  “Is your leg injured?”  Kili’s voice was choked-off in his throat.  His shook his head, sore and frightened but unharmed.  She pulled a cloth from her belt and carefully wiped his face.  “There now, we go get you cleaned up.”  In that moment she reminded Kili of his mother in her homespun dress and worn gear.  He grabbed onto her hand and tried to avoid the guards that were grabbing at his tunic.  She waved them away protectively.  “Leave him be now.  Get him inside.”  Kili let her lead him back through the yard.  The adrenalin was fading now and he started to shake.  He had been so close this time, not a dozen feet from the gate, his best effort at getting through to the other side and it wasn’t enough.  Frightened and sick, he made it to the wall and leaned up against it as his stomach came up into his mouth and he vomited, the acid burning his mouth and throat. 

The dwarrowdam gently rubbed her hand on his back and soothed him until it was all up.  He leaned his forehead against his arm and exhaled roughly.  “You have to stop this.  He gets tired of it he’ll do what he says and you’ll not be the first.  As bad his hands are it won’t be as bad as all of theirs will be.”  He turned and looked back over his shoulder at the men watching him.  _“…as all of theirs…”_

 

* * *

 

 

Ori was enjoying his chance to learn weapons work.  Several days a week a guard would collect him from the archives where he worked copying and doing basic translations and walked him down to the training grounds where the little Omega learned how to escape and tried his hand at throwing small weapons.  Escaping he was good at given he was small and still pretty quick on his feet.  He could usually outmaneuver a bulkier opponent as long as they didn’t grab him by the arm, his soft knit cardigan making him hard to hold onto.  Weapons he was not so good at.  The little scribe was unnaturally awkward when it came wielding a sword or hammer, not much better at throwing axes.  Strength he had, confidence in his own abilities not so much.  Ori sighed as he watched another axe sail past the straw target.  _“Hopeless…”_

“Yer overthinkin’ it, lad,” a rough voice came from behind him.  He turned and found himself looking up at the biggest dwarf in the settlement.  “Oh, hello.”

“Yer makin’ it harder than it needs be,” Dwalin told him.  “Don’t think so much ‘bout yer throw.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Ori replied. 

The big dwarf turned and rummaged through a chest of gear.  “Try this,” he said handing Ori a carved Y-shaped piece of wood with a sinew thong attached.  He picked up a pebble and loaded it into the leather pocket of the sling.  “Hold this in yer off hand and use it to sight down the target,” he guided Ori’s left hand.  “Now pull the stone back with yer right…”  Ori was very aware of the largeness of the other dwarf as he stood behind him, pushing his feet into the proper stance and raising his elbow up into the correct form.  Looking down his arm towards the target he noticed for the first time the faded blue tattoos over the big hand over his and the dark, smoky smell of him.  “Eye on yer target an let go!”  The stone sailed from Ori’s grasp and thunked solidly into the straw target.

_“I hit it!”_ Ori jumped, excitedly forgetting himself.  Dwalin smiled down at him approvingly and suddenly Ori was aware of just how solid the dwarf standing next to him was.  “Not too big but ye can do some damage with it.  Ye can brain a man with that little thing if ye hit him just right.”  The older dwarf brought out some cracked and chipped clay mugs and small pots and set them up on the fence at about head high and let Ori fire away at them.  The sound they made when they broke was immensely more satisfying than hitting the straw targets and he grinned excitedly.  Dwalin patted him approvingly on the shoulder.  “I think ye found yer weapon.”

The sun had moved lower in the sky than Ori realized.  “Oh, it’s late.  My brother will be worried.”

“I’ll walk ye home then,” Dwalin volunteered.  Ori liked that idea.  The truth was he hadn’t ever really gotten to speak to the big Alpha alone before.  They had run across each other when he spent time with Fili and Kili, Dwalin being more of an honorary uncle to the boys, but that was before everything had happened and now Ori was feeling a little lonely.  He didn’t mind the way the crowd parted for them to pass through town instead of forcing him to make his way, he also didn’t mind the respectful way the other Alphas nodded at them as they walked by.  They chatted amicably about Ori’s escape lessons and Dwalin approved of his soft, loose knit clothing.  “It makes it hard for someone to grab ahold of me,” Ori commented.  “Although I don’t imagine you ever had that problem.  Having to run away from anyone, I mean,” he added with a little blush.

“Nah,” Dwalin smiled.  “I’m the one doin’ the grabbin’ an’ keepin’.”  They stopped at the small Ri front door.  Dwalin placed a friendly hand on his shoulder.  “Ye did good today, lad.  I’ll check up on yeh as long as I’m in town.”

“Thank you, Mister Dwalin,” Ori gave a little bow and turned to go inside. 

“Ori, is that you?”  Dori called out from the little kitchen.  “How did your lesson go?  Did the guard walk you home?”

“It went really well today and no,” Ori set his bag down on his chair.  “Mister Dwalin walked me home.”

_“Dwalin?!”_ Dori’s head popped back out again.

“He’s really very nice,” Ori started pulling cups and plates from the cupboard.

“We haven’t been properly introduced yet.”  Ori heard the sound of mild disapproval in his brother’s voice.  Dori did everything by proper form. 

“Well you have to admit I certainly couldn’t be any safer.”  He deliberately appealed to Dori’s parental instincts. 

“True,” Dori answered.  “But he is an _unbonded Alpha_.  I would still feel it would be more appropriate if we invited him for tea.”

Ori giggled at the thought of the hulking Captain of the Guard sitting down to tea with the very prim and proper Dori.  But if he insisted on engaging in dangerous activities like walking the young Ri Omega home after weapons practice then he’d just have to put up with it, at least until Nori got home and then he’d really be in for trouble!

 

* * *

 

 

Kili let the guards lead him to the hall where Greylock’s court was in full swing, the dwarrowdam who took care of him close behind.  He was clean and dressed and she had braided his hair, making him look young and fetching.  _“Listen,”_ she spoke softly as she straightened his tunic.  _“He just wants to show you off at table.  He has his whores for after.  Be good and look pretty and he won’t hurt you.”_   Kili nodded and walked out towards the head table.  Greylock was seated at the end in a large chair surrounded by rough-looking warriors.  Of the many long tables in the room Kili noted the ones up front were all dwarf.  Greylock, like many of his kind, surrounded himself by those he considered loyal, and while men were sometimes necessary, they were not to be trusted. 

Greylock turned his way and saw him approaching.  “Here is pretty Omega,” he called out loudly, waving a tankard in his direction.  Kili clasped his hands in front of him and bowed his head, ignoring the leers and questioning looks of the others.  He took a deep breath as the huge dwarf motioned for him to come close.  “Now, see,” he took Kili’s jaw and tilted his face up.  Kili got a good view of the hard leather armor he always wore and the knives on his belt while keeping his eyes down so he did not look into the other’s face.  “Here is good little dwarf.”  The big hands roughly turned Kili around and pulled him into the lap, greedily feeling him through his fine clothing, showing off his obedience to the rest of the table while the others laughed and toasted in approval.  He kept his eyes on the table top as rank breath pressed on his neck.  “So pretty!  You go into heat soon, give Greylock lots of sons!”  Kili closed his eyes and thought no more.

 

* * *

 

 

Nori gobbled down the bowl of rabbit stew like a dwarf that hadn’t eaten in a halfmoon, or at least one who hadn’t eaten anything that wasn’t of highly suspicious origin in a long time.  It was really very good, being fresh and savory, and was accompanied by hot crusty bread and cold ale, all courtesy of Dis, sister of Thorin, in who’s kitchen he now sat.  Dis smiled appreciatively at his efforts and offered the slender, auburn haired dwarf a second helping, which he readily accepted.  Thorin waited patiently, Nori having arrived late in the night on a pony Thorin was sure he did not own.  Nori slowed down and took a deep breath.  “Oh, this makes up for all the pigswill I have eaten in the cities of men.”

Dis smiled, having travelled much in the years before settling in Ered Luin.  “I am glad someone appreciates my cooking.”

Nori placed a hand over his heart and gave her a little bow.  “A queen among dwarrowdams, you truly are.  Had I but known I would have come begging to your door long before now.”  She blushed and pushed a plate of fruit and honey tarts across to him.  “You and your brothers are welcome at any time.”

Thorin took a long drink of tea and eyed the pastries.  Nori had arrived cold and exhausted after a long trip to bring news back personally.  “What news have you?”

Nori selected a tart and bit into it, his eyes closing sublimely.  “The offer of the reward is starting to loosen tongues but people are afraid to speak directly.”  Thorin unrolled a large map across the table and Nori pointed to the towns and cities where he had lately been.  “So whoever did it has enough money or men to keep people quiet about it.  But here,” he put a slender finger down on the map and waited for Dis to drop a baking weight on it as a marker.  “I found these in a stall that sells secondhand gear.”  He reached into his pack and pulled out a set of well-used leather gloves, fingerless except for the thumb and first two fingers on the right.  Archer’s gloves adorned with woven insets and careful stitching.  Dis reached out her hands to take them.  “Kili’s gloves, I made them myself.”

“What does this mean?”  Thorin’s words were carefully measured.  He didn’t want to show what he thought it meant, not in front of the boy’s mother.

“I looked around but I didn’t see anything else I recognized.  Everything Kili wore had his pattern woven or sewn into it so not to hard to find.  These are too small for a man to use, not many dwarves use a bow, so whoever had them pawned them off for some easy coin, maybe too stupid to realize how much they’d stand out.  But what I think is that whoever took him either stole his gear and fenced it or his gear was given out as rewards and no one could use the gloves.”  He paused to pick up another tart and chew it thoughtfully.

“Is he there?” Thorin looked at the spot on the map.

“No, but someone who knows where he is has passed through there, maybe still is there.”

“Fili is still out on the road, I can send his group to search.”  Thorin stood and pulled a small pouch from his coat and passed it Nori.  “How long will you be in Ered Luin?”

Nori carefully tucked the pouch away without opening it.  “Long enough to see my brothers and get a good night’s sleep.  Then I’ll be heading back,” he nodded to the marker on the map. 

As he stood up Dis pressed a small basket into his hands.  “For your brothers, with my good wishes.”  Nori bowed to her again.  “I wish I had better news for you.”

Dis cradled the gloves against herself.  “This is the first real news we have had and I thank you for it.”

Thorin walked out to speak to Balin while Nori headed off to the home of his brothers.  He left the pony in Thorin’s barn and took the rooftop route, far more private and easier to navigate than the streets at night.  He paused every now and again to make sure he wasn’t followed, then took a roundabout path, passing his brother’s small house deliberately twice before going to the window and sliding it up.  “Nori?”

He froze, feet still perched on the sill, hand on his pack.  “Dori?  Is everything alright?  Where’s Ori?”

“Asleep.”  His older brother reached out to help with his bag.  “I didn’t know the search party had returned or he would have been waiting up with me.”

“Just me this time, come to relay messages to Thorin.”  He handed Dori the basket.  “Lady Dis sent this with her regards.”

Dori peeked in and let out a sigh.  “Honey apple tarts, bless her soul she is a kind one.  Come downstairs and I’ll put the kettle on.”  Nori was a little suspicious that his older brother was behaving so solicitously towards him and kept on his toes as he followed him quietly down the stairs.  “We have something we need to talk about.”

“Oh?”  Nori quickly went through a mental checklist of everything that had transpired before he left and then everything that could have happened in his absence.  Dori brought the fire up in the little kitchen stove and put the kettle on while Nori grabbed cups and plates.  Dori brought out a tart each and set the teapot on the table.  “We should save the rest for Ori tomorrow.”

“Did somethin’ happen while I was away?”  Nori was feeling uneasy now.  Dori poured the boiling water into the teapot and dropped the teaball in to allow it to steep.  “Ori has been enjoying his self-defense lessons.”  Nori raised his braided eyebrows as he bit into his pastry and waited for Dori to continue.  “Normally the guard provided by the watch walks him home but as of late Dwalin, son of Fundin has been bringing him home.”

Nori nearly choked on his food and Dori patted him carefully on the back.  _“Dwalin!  Dwalin of the City Guard?”_

“The very one.”  Dori strained the tea into their cups, his face a very controlled state of neutrality.  “When he is here he gives Ori combat lessons.  I assume you two are professionally acquainted?”

“We’re gonna be more than acquainted when I get my hands on him!  Is he here now?”  Nori jumped up from his chair.

“Sit down!”  Dori grabbed the table before his brother could jostle his tea set off and break it.  “He’s out with one of the search parties.”

“How could you let him escort Ori around like that?  An unbonded Alpha!”  Nori was livid.  “Like they was _courting_ , for Mahal’s sake!”

Dori placed a hand on his brother’s arm.  “First of all, Ori is too young for courting.  And even if they were, would it be so bad?  He comes from the best of families and has a reputation of impeccable honor.”

“You’ve had him to tea, haven’t you?”  Nori narrowed his eyes at his brother.

“As a matter of fact I have, and Mister Dwalin has assured me that he is not courting Ori and wouldn’t dream of it until Ori comes of age.  Besides,” he sipped his tea.  “He and I have come to an… _understanding.”_   The truth was that Dori had threatened to remove Dwalin’s reasons for courting in a very painful manner, while being very polite about it all, over tea a few days after the big guard started bringing Ori home. 

“And what understanding is that?”  Nori gobbled down the rest of his food.

“That no one will be courting Ori until they first come to ask permission of his family and that any transgressions on his part will be dealt with in a very final manner.”  Dori delicately bit into the tart.  “This is quite good.”

Nori snorted into his cup.  The thought of Dwalin having to ask him for permission to do anything greatly appealed to his perverse sense of humor.  But still…  “I may meet up with him on the road back.”

“Well if you do please hold your temper, for Ori’s sake.” 

Nori nearly spit his tea across the table.  “My temper?  Who you callin’ bad-tempered?”  Dori was famous for his temper.  It took a lot to get him riled, but when he did Nori would usually clear out of town for a few weeks.  Or months.  Once for a few years…

“Ori seems very fond of him and frankly he could do far worse if it did come to courting.”  Dori cleaned off the table.  “I would suggest you get some sleep.  Ori will want to see you in the morning before he goes off to the archives.”  Nori stood up to make his way upstairs. 

“It’s good to see you helping, looking for the Prince, that is.”  Nori turned to look at him and they again exchanged the same thought.  _“If they could take one…”_

 

* * *

 

 

Kili leaned back against Greylock and didn’t protest when the big hands ran over him, didn’t refuse the meat and ale that was fed to him by those big, greasy hands, didn’t flinch away when the big face pressed into his neck.  Hilgot had spent hours in his cell coaching him on how to behave around the dwarf who had paid for him.  “He wants sons,” she brushed the braids out of his hair.  “That’s why he brought you here.”

“So I’m a brood mare?  To be mounted when I go into heat?”  He was angry and didn’t have anyone to vent his anger on.  His shoulders hunched and his fists clenched in his lap.  “Prize brood mare,” she countered.  “A beauty with fine blood.  You will give him sons he can have pride in, not bastards sired on whores.”  She gripped his shoulders.  “Listen to me boy, if you disappoint him he will give you to his men and find another.  If you are lucky they will only kill you.” 

Kili’s head fell forward as the tears came.  “I had someone.”  She folded his clothing into the chest and let him go on.  “I had someone and he was beautiful.”

“Tell me.”

“He had golden hair and blue eyes and he was perfect and he loved me more than anything.”

“Where is he now?”

Kili rubbed his hands across his face.  “He fell trying to protect me, he fell on the path and I left him there and ran.”

She rubbed small circles in the back of his shoulders.  “He is gone and you are here now.  There is no more outside for you; you must forget it, all of it.  When you get your heat he will bed you and you will get with child and he will be happy, treat you well.  You must forget the rest.”

“We were waiting,” Kili went on.  “Even though we knew there was no one else we were waiting for our bonding ceremony.”  He stood up and walked over to the window and watched the snow that was beginning to fall.  _“Now I wish we hadn’t.”_

 

* * *

 

 

Fili woke to snow falling on his face.  He immediately thought about Kili, how he would bolt outside when the first snowfall came, dragging him outside.  Kili loved snow when it was light and fluffy on the ground, he would tromp around in it and come inside sparkling with ice crystals on his cheeks and lashes.  When the snows got heavier they would dig a fort in the hillside and ambush Thorin when he came home from the forge, their uncle retaliating by dumping snow on them from over the battlements until they ran laughing into the kitchen where their mother would be waiting with mulled cider.  He blinked and found his eyes wet. 

Geirmund approached him, already up with his bedroll packed.  “I think it wiser to forgo breakfast and just ride on into town.  We can take rooms at the inn there, find some hot food and shelter for the ponies.”

Fili rolled up his blankets quickly, looking at the pale sky.  “I think you’re right.  Sitting out here won’t do us any good.”  In truth Geirmund had been a great help for him, a stabilizing influence on the younger Alpha.  “Let’s get on the road before it comes down any harder.”

They were further out than they had travelled before, the towns getting rougher, some just a collection of poorly constructed taverns, whorehouses and smithies clustered around a mining operation or a quarry.  The one they approached was little better, with an inn and some established merchants but no proper city guard to speak of.  As they rode in they passed a handful of seedy taverns and Fili caught a glimpse of familiar reddish brown hair sauntering along the walkway.  He didn’t turn and look, Nori would find him. 

_“How does he always know where we’re going to be?”_ Geirmund asked without turning his head. 

_“I don’t know but he has news or else we wouldn’t have seen him at all_ ,” Fili replied.  This was a good thing.  Thorin’s messengers only brought word from Ered Luin when they caught up to them.  Nori was always a few steps ahead so he had either double-backed or waited for their arrival.  It was easier for Nori to travel alone and among his own kind, stopping at the places where he would eat a meal that looked like it came off of someone else’s plate, play at dice or cards with the locals, be offered jobs, hear gossip.  Really he was no stranger to these towns, passing through maybe once a year or so looking for his particular brand of business, so no one thought twice when he swaggered in and sat down with a drink.  He would have broken down Thorin’s coin into small bits beforehand, so never to look like he was carrying more than he should.  He’d drink, round up a job, listen for news of anyone that went out on a job and never came back.

He made a point of letting Fili’s company see him and the meaning was always the same, _“I have news.  I will find you.”_

Fili secured room in a stable for their ponies at an inn run by men, being the one place in town that didn’t look in danger of falling in on itself.  There was an early meal of bread and thin vegetable soup to be had inside which they strongly suspected was left over from the night before but at least it was hot.  Geirmund thought it might be safer to secure sleeping space in the barn loft than beds, judging by the state of the place and the men who were eating at the tables nearby and Fili agreed with him.  “Less chance of getting robbed or getting lice.”  The other dwarves laughed, drawing dirty looks from some of the men.  _“It will also be easier for Nori to get in touch with us.”_ He thought.

Fili trudged out to the stable to check on the ponies and his gear.  Climbing into the loft he found a little bit of parchment tucked into the pocket where he kept his comb.  _“When did he have time to get up here?,”_ he wondered.  Unfolding it carefully he saw two words written in charcoal, divided by a firm line: _“Khebab”_ and _“Sud”._   Fili stared at the words. 

_“Forge”_ and _“Danger”._  

 

* * *

 

 

Nori sat himself down at the long wooden table with a group of rough dwarves and waved down the dwarrowdam working the floor.  “Ale an’a plate, love.”  While he waited he pulled a small and mostly empty leather pouch from his coat pocket and fingered through the meager coins inside and asked the dwarf sitting next to him, “How much for a room here?”

The big dwarf looked him up and down with an appraising eye, noting the hair and slim build but also noting the fleshing knives Nori wore on the outside of his belt.  “You can get a pallet to yerself on the floor for a few copperbits.  But I’m sure you could find a bed in a room if you share.”

Nori smiled a wicked, toothy grin back at him.  “That might do until I find some work.”  The dwarrowdam brought him a plate of gamey-smelling roast meat and greasy fried potatoes and a hunk of hard, dark bread.  He shifted it about on his plate to make sure nothing was hiding in it and took a large mouthful, again missing the rich taste of the rabbit stew in Dis’ kitchen.  “Not a good town to run to the end of yer coin in.”

The big dwarf laughed and patted him on the leg.  “If yer any good I might know somewhere ye can get a job.”

Nori responded by holding the dwarf’s coin pouch up in his slender fingers.  “I’m aright, good with locks an a few other things too.”  He punctuated his comment by leaning into the dwarf’s muscular arm.  The dwarves at the table guffawed in laughter.  The dwarf grabbed his pouch back and signaled the serving wench, holding up two fingers.  “I have room and I don’t mind sharin’.  We’ll put those fingers of yers to good use!”

 

* * *

 

 

Geirmund stepped up next to Fili while he was taking care of his pony.  _“Anything?”_   Fili passed him the scrap of paper.  _“He found something and he thinks we’re in danger.”_

_“Maybe we should keep quiet about why were here then.”_

_“Just check the forges and the marketplace?  Maybe sleep here until the snow stops.  Whatever he’s onto I don’t want to spoil his hunt.”_

_“Good idea.  I’ll tell the others.”_

Fili finished up his work and walked back out onto the road to meet his companion.  “Forge first?”

“Yah.  Pull your hair back and put your hood up.  That yellow hair makes you stand out.”

They walked down to a row of long sheds that held several smiths, a potter and a tanner, the heat and the smell hanging pungent in the air.  They looked up and down to see if any of them were doing weapon work and Geirmund stopped a passerby and asked if there were any dwarven forges in the town.  “No dwarf-make here,” the stranger answered.  “And more’s the pity.  We could use it over at the mine.  But there’s a mun makes decent knives last shed down if that’s what yer lookin’ fur.”

They thanked him and ambled down the unpaved road, now turned to mud with the traffic through the snow, just two dwarves looking to replace some gear while they were in town.  There was a man who forged weapons of passable quality and Fili stood back, looking at the few swords laid out on the counter.  They were nothing compared to what came out of their forges at Ered Luin, but dwarf-make was always superior in that regard.  He picked one up and idly tested the grip and balance while Geirmund bartered the price on a new dagger.  The price reached and coin exchanged they stepped back out into the road.

_“Well?”_

_“Same makers mark on all of them.”_

_“As soon as the snow stops we need to send a message back to Thorin.”_

Geirmund clapped him on the shoulder and steered him solidly down the road.  “Let’s get you inside.”  He could feel the tension rolling off the younger dwarf.

“He’s here Geirmund, I know he is.  We’re close.”  Fili’s breath was coming fast and he looked agitated.  He stumbled against someone on the street and his companion gripped his arm to steady him.  “That’s why we don’t want anyone to know why we’re here.  They think yer dead and he’s too far away for anyone to find.  It needs to stay that way.”

 

* * *

 

 

Kili stood in the hall next to Hilgot, watching Greylock negotiate with the men from the towns mining operation.  Greylock liked having him about when he did business, it showed those beneath him his power and his wealth and when he drank too much he’d hold the Omega on his lap and coddle him like a pet.  He had a hand in every kind of commerce in and out of the area, iron going out, supplies, whores and ale coming in.  His camp was populated with thieves, sell-swords and opportunists looking to make some coin without fear of reprisal.  No guard came here, no one uninvited passed inside the gate, Greylock’s rules were known and obeyed and they all got along and one of Greylock’s rules was no one touched what was his.  The dwarves all knew this, the men from the mining camp did not.

Negotiations were done over ale and insults and Kili knew that Greylock was never as drunk as he ought to be.  He sat in his big chair at the head of his table while the men from the mine sat along one side, Greylock’s dwarves sitting along the other, going over ledgers, reports and past written agreements.  The mine boss always wanted to reduce the amount of ore he had to turn over.  The dwarves didn’t want to give up any of their trade.  Greylock was greedy as any dwarf born but he was also shrewd and he knew exactly how much he could get away with before bloodshed would break out between the two camps.  He called for more ale for his guests and dug in to wait; he would wear them down until they were too drunk and too tired to argue anymore and just sign the damn parchment. 

“You are breaking us with these agreements!”  The mine boss was starting to get impatient.  “I know you get a share out of everything that comes through the town, you bastard son of whores!  You live like a king in here while we do all the work.”  This was the argument every time they haggled over the terms of their trade.  The miners wanted some profit for their work, Greylock held the land where the mine was located.  He also held an interest in the town and all trade coming in through the town tithed to him.  The man gestured around him, too much ale making his judgment roll out the door on unsteady legs.  “You sleep warm in the winter, you never go without food and you have more whores than you can fuck.” 

His eyes cast around until they met Kili’s.  “Well, look at that,” he stood up out of his chair.  “You send some of those to us instead of those used-up dogs from town maybe we get along better.”  Kili quickly looked down at the floor as he felt Hilgot’s hand come up to his shoulder.

Greylock turned to see what he was looking at.  “Not for you.  You take what I send, yah.”

_“I think,”_ the man stepped forward.  “You want us to send you more ore then you can start sharing some of what you got in here.”  Silence fell on the hall and now the only sound was the rustle of parchment as the dwarven clerks folded up their ledgers and pulled away from the table.  Hilgot stepped in-between Kili and the mine boss.  _“Not for you.”_

The man shoved her rudely aside and reached out to grab Kili by the chin.  “Your hospitality has been slipping dwarf.  I think the men in my camp would be a lot more bent towards your demands if we saw some of this.” 

Kili looked up into the man’s face, seeing his dirty leer then seeing it turn into an expression of twisted pain as he gasped and fell roughly to one knee.  Hilgot pulled him back as Greylock twisted the man’s free arm up behind his back with a wrench.  Kili could hear bones popping.  _“You call my Omega whore?”_   He wrenched hard and bones splintered, shredding through the skin while blood started to pour.  Men and dwarves backpedaled as the man retched out a scream.  Grey lock stomped a heavy boot down on the small of his back and pushed sharply, the man falling down and convulsing as the spine snapped.   _“You no touch what is mine.  Greylock’s rule!”_

Kili had never seen anyone harmed in that way.  He could only stand and stare as the guard grabbed the man’s now useless legs and drug him from the room.  Greylock approached him and tilted his head up.  “He hurt you?”  Kili started to shake and he felt his stomach rising in his throat.  He shook his head, too afraid to speak.  “Good, I would have had to kill him if he did!”  The dwarves in the room laughed.  He pulled the little Omega towards his seat at the head of the table and turned to the man who was second in command.  “Now, where were we?”

“We was just signing the contracts!” The man said, his compatriots nodding in wide-eyed agreement.  Greylock laughed and waved his scribes back over to the table.  “This is what I like to hear.”  He sat in the chair and pulled Kili into his lap, petting his hair with his big hands.  He leaned towards the man who was putting the mines stamp on the parchments.  “You never see dwarf like this before?”

The man sat back and looked to his companions, not wanting to be the next to have an arm removed from its socket.  They all shook their heads.  “This little _mizimelûh_.  Rare jewel, like black opal.  Is only for Greylock to touch.”  He waved at the servants to start bringing food to the table.  “Is good you know this.  We do not want more misunderstanding.”  Kili leaned against his chest and fisted his hands into the big dwarf’s coat as he petted him with affection, coming to the strange realization that he was the safest when he was with the most dangerous dwarf he ever knew.

 

* * *

 

 

Nori was sitting at a low, makeshift table in the middle of the camp dealing cards and making a little coin as he laughed and joked with the dwarves around him.  True to his word his bedmate had brought him to the encampment about midday and he settled right in, fleecing some of the locals and charming the bigger dwarves with his pretty smile and auburn hair.  He made sure he lost enough to keep the game going and pretty soon both dwarves and men were sitting close either watching the action or placing their own wagers.  They all cheated outrageously and Nori wasn’t even sure all the coin being exchanged was real, but he was in the center of where he would hear the most talk.  There was a commotion at the door of the keep as two guards emerged, dragging a man by his legs.  A small crowd of camp followers descended upon him to strip him of his useful goods.  “That’s unfortunate,” Nori muttered.

“Wha’d he do?” someone shouted.

“Put his hands on boss’ pet,” a guard shouted back.  “Gonna drop him in the pit.”

As the crowd cleared Nori could see two things, the man was clearly alive and that his body was useless, broken beyond repair.  “That’s a tough lot for touchin’… what did you say it was?”

“Not it, who,” a dwarf leaned towards him in a whisper.  “Boss’ got ‘imself a pretty little thing in there, I seen ‘im.  Had ‘im brought in special”

Nori shook his head.  “Man has to be dim to touch that.”

“Aye,” said another.  “Men from mine camp’s dim.  They always was!”  Laughter surrounded them.

“How long do yeh think he’ll live?” asked another. 

“Two days!” someone called.

“I give it four!” called someone else.

“I think I hear a wager!” Nori spoke up.  “Let’s start a pot.  Someone write it down.”  If there was an Omega in that keep he needed to find a way to find out if it was Kili.

 

* * *

 

 

 

Fili shuddered in his sleep, Kili’s voice accusing in his head.  _“Why Fili?  Why did you wait so long?”_   In his sleep Kili was standing there looking at him with disappointment.  He looked older, his hair was longer and there were lines on his face and hands.  Kili looked down at his stomach and Fili could see it was bulging, heavy with a baby that was not his.  _“I tried to wait for you but you never came.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Hilgot…”

“Hmmm…?”

“How did you come here?”

“I will tell you if you eat.”  Kili looked down at the tray of food.  He wasn’t hungry, he never was anymore, but he would eat a little if she would stay and talk with him.  Everyone but Hilgot was afraid to have anything to do with him now and he was profoundly alone.  She offered up a bite of some kind of fowl, the skin crisp and spicy and he took it in his mouth and tried to chew slowly.  “My husband an’ me, we came to open a shop that brought goods into the town.”  Another bite, this time something mashed.  “It was good business when we started.  Lot of business in mining town.”  Another bite of fowl.  “But my husband, he like to drink.  Got himself stabbed in tavern fight.  After that I could not keep shop open by myself.”

“So you came here?”  A sip this time, warm tea.

“No way to get back home by myself.”  Another bite of the mash.  “Someone told me I come here and serve, get paid for it.  Cook, clean, wash clothes.”  Now a bite of something that tasted like baked fruit.  “But I cannot leave here.  Have to stay.” 

“They won’t let you leave?”  More baked fruit.

“No, I must stay, take care of you now.”

He swallowed and looked down at the almost empty plate.  His stomach lurched.  “I’m sorry.”

She smoothed his hair.  In the days since the incident with the mine boss he had become even quieter, more withdrawn.  “Do not be.  Good I am here with you, yah?”  He nodded in agreement.  “You sleep now.  I will come with breakfast.”

 

 

He let her tuck the thick wool blanket and fur around him and left, only the fire burning low in the hearth to light the room.  He lay there staring at it for awhile, fighting the restless urge to get up and move around.  Some nights he would pace the room until exhaustion overtook him.  When sleep did overtake him he dreamed of the hillside near their home where they would play under the warm sun.  He dreamt of a summers afternoon, he and Fili and Gimli and Ori laying in the grass, bellies stuffed full from Dis’ kitchen.  Ori was whistling a little tune the children used to sing while they played.  Dis used to sing it to them when Thorin was away.  He turned towards Ori and smiled.  _“I always liked that song.”_

_“You have to wake up now, Kili,”_ Ori spoke to him. _“You have to wake up.”_

 

 

Kili jolted awake, eyes looking into the near darkness of his room, heart pounding.  Was someone in the room with him?  Someone had been speaking to him.  He scanned the darkness apprehensively.  Sitting up he quietly walked over to the window and pulled upon the heavy shutter, letting the cold air ghost across his face.  As usual the camp outside was still going, they didn’t die down until close to dawn.  He had almost decided that he must have heard voices from the yard when a thin, high sound trailed up to him.  A familiar sound, someone was whistling a tune as they walked through the yard.  Kili’s breath caught in his throat.  He knew that song.  He had heard it since he was a child.  A song the shepherds sung to their flocks at night.  Every child in Ered Luin knew that song.

The whistling ended and Kili cursed that he had never really learned how.  Fili and Ori both did it beautifully, but neither one of them could possibly be here, could they?  He looked and tried to see if anyone was standing near the base of the tower but it was dark so far from the fire.  He had to chance it.

_“Little sheep, go to sleep, your shepherd’s here to guard you._

_Wooly sheep, don’t you bleat, we’ll move on tomorrow…”_

He sang it softly, hoping the sound would carry far enough.  When he finished he heard the song whistled again and then silence.  _“Oh, please let it be enough,”_ he prayed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is bread and butter to a writer, please leave comments or msg me on Tumblr!
> 
> Hurmel = honor of (all) honors  
> Uhurud = battle  
> Mizimelûh - my jewel of (all) jewels


	5. "Come Find Me"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Kili is found his family has to find a way to get to him and then get him home safely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this might not be the best day to post so if you are having anxiety issues you may want to hold off reading until tomorrow.
> 
> Thank you everyone for your words of encouragement! My OCs are taking over the story!

** “Kidnapped!” **

**Part Five**

 

**_“Come Find Me”_ **

 

 

 

 

 

Fili woke with a stiff neck and pounding head.  He had not slept well, hadn’t in months really, the frustration of the search wearing him thin.  Geirmund’s company helped, the older, more experienced dwarf keeping him focused.  His bladder demanded that he get down from the loft and trudge through the snow to the trees behind the stable.  He vaguely contemplated just leaning out the top door and just hanging it out over the yard but then took pity on the stableboy.  As he started to move he felt something crunch in his boot.  Reaching down Fili pulled a slip of parchment from the fur lining.  _“How the hells?”_

Marveling how the thief managed to get in and out of the loft unseen, Fili unfolded the scrap, his breath catching in his throat.  There were no words, just the hastily sketched drawing of a raven.  _Kili’s mark._

 

* * *

 

 

Dwalin stood at the wooden counter of a shop that specialized in the sale of items for making manuscript pages; vellum, goose and swan feathers, quill knives, tiny, soft brushes and powdered inks in all colors.  He looked around at all the items on the shelves, not sure what to ask for.  “May I help you sir?”

The man behind the counter was thin and elderly and had probably been tall in his youth.  As it was he wasn’t much taller than Dwalin now.  His fingers were stained with many colors and his smile was kind, not minding waiting on a dwarf who was obviously anything but a scribe.  “You seem to be looking for something.”

Dwalin’s forehead creased as he thought about what he was looking for.  In truth he really had no idea what he was looking for.  “Ah, I really don’ know.  It’s a gift fer someone back home.”

“A special gift for a special someone?” The man raised an eyebrow.

“Yeh, you could say that.”  Dwalin wasn’t sure exactly how men viewed “special” dwarven relationships, so perhaps the less he said the better.  “A special gift fer a scribe in our archives.”

“I see,” the man positively radiated approval.  “I do have some imported supplies she might like.”  Dwalin watched as the man rummaged through the seemingly random piles of boxes and clutter behind the counter, pulling out small things here and there.  He had sought this place out once they hit a city large enough to have shops that would sell such things and he wanted something special to bring back to Ori his next visit back home.  He had certainly endured enough pots of tea and hours of polite conversation at the mercy of one brother and an outright assassination attempt at the hands of the other to at least be allowed to let Ori know he thought highly of his chosen profession.  He took a moment to look at the little quill knives and wondered how difficult it would be to make one, maybe with a bone handle and silver inlays…

“Here we are,” the old man presented a collection of small, delicate-looking things on the counter.  “These are best for fine detail work, fine writing and the illumination of manuscripts, imported from the east.  I usually don’t get many people looking for this sort of thing.”  Dwalin picked up a brush almost too small to fit in his hand.  Yes, he remembered Ori lamenting not having the proper materials to make colored pages with.  There was a set of fine brushes, several ink sticks of various vibrant colors, a grinding stone and even a small glass bottle with little chunks of lapis inside, the cork carefully sealed with wax, all with a rather lovely wooden box to place them in.

“Ah think this would be just the thing.  Can yeh pack it for a long journey?”  He really had no idea how long until he would see Ered Luin again, but this made him feel better, the thought of the look on Ori’s face when he saw it.  The man carefully packed the set to keep things from being broken and Dwalin paid him the price he asked for it, as it was considered bad luck to haggle over a courting gift.  Not that this was a courting gift.  Ori wasn’t allowed to court yet.  But still…

Dwalin thanked the man and made his way back to the inn in a much better mood than he had been in all day.  They were still moving from city to city looking for any evidence that Kili’s attackers had passed through.  Fili had gotten word to him that they had found something of significance in a dirty little mining town about as far off of the road as you could travel but Dwalin couldn’t imagine anyone in a town like that having the wherewithal to pay for Kili to be taken.  Perhaps they had found some of the men who did it hiding there.  If that was the case he and Nori would see to it they talked.

He was surprised then to find the common room of the large inn packed with dwarves, far more than his little company alone.  Besides his companions from Ered Luin and the local crowd there were Fili’s group all packed around the table in the back corner, as far from strangers as they could get and being pretty noisy about it.  Squinting into the lamplight he saw Fili sitting in the far corner, and empty place beside him.  He signaled the barmaid and walked over to the table, squeezing his bulk between Fili and a dwarf with long black hair and braids in his beard, Geirmund if he remembered correctly.  He waited until a plate and mug were set before him and then leaned over slightly towards Fili, the noise the other dwarves were making covering the sound of their voices.  “How’s the road?”

“Passible if it’s not snowing,” Fili replied.  He felt a scrap of parchment pressed into his hand.  He looked at it discreetly.

“Where?”

“Mining camp, or somewhere just outside of it.  We cleared out as soon as he sent us word.”

Dwalin took a bite of food.  “Is he sure?”

Fili followed suit.  “Says he saw him.  Some kind of fortified keep.”

“We need to get yer uncle and every dwarf he can muster down here then,” Dwalin mused.  “Can yeh send a raven from here?”

“Not without drawing attention to ourselves.  We’ll have to use a messenger.”

Geirmund took a sip of his ale, watching the room.  “We have a few fast riders we can send back.  We’re close enough to the trade road they should be able to make good time despite the snow.”

Dwalin nodded.  “Safety in numbers.  Even if the road is good a dwarf ridin’ alone could still be waylaid.”   

“At first dawn to be safe,” Fili nodded in agreement.  We can meet them here and move together.  I don’t want to camp anywhere they might come upon us by accident.”

“Agreed,” Dwalin gave some thought to it.  “We might want to tell them to bring extra ponies in case there’s trouble on the way back.”

Fili gave that consideration.  Would Kili fit to ride back?  He thought back to his dream and was afraid of what he would find when they got there.

 

* * *

 

 

Dis moved quietly through the small bedroom, carefully wiping away the ever-encroaching dust, checking the closet for signs of mice, straightening blankets on beds that had not been slept in.  She sat stiffly on the edge of one bed and looked out the window as the snow gently fell, the quiet pressing in on her.  There were no happy voices drifting in from the outside, no slamming doors, no heavy bootsteps spreading snow and mud across her floors.  They had been gone for months and even her brother’s brooding countenance did nothing to ease her loneliness.

She looked at the two beds, pushed apart for the summer heat.  Kili always hated that but he sprawled and kept Fili from sleep, so he would whine piteously until Fili would allow him to climb into his bed, then when he fell asleep Fili would slide quietly into the other.  Inevitably at some point Kili would wake and chase him to the other bed and Fili would still wake nearly suffocating under his other.  It was funny how she knew all their little routines probably better than they did.

She stood up, walked around the bed nearest to the door and pushed it up against the other.  Then she went to the closet and pulled several furs wrapped in old bedsheets from the top of the shelf, unrolled them and spread them across both mattresses.  It made her feel better at least, just a little. 

Looking down on the floor she spotted a brush that had been dropped and bounced under the bed she had just moved.  It needed cleaning, full of loose gold and sable hair.  She carefully untangled them with slender fingers and tucked them into her pocket, leaving the brush on top of the dresser.  Moving to her own room she pulled the chair from the little writing desk and raised the lid.  There she opened a little stone jar and carefully stowed the hair inside, strand by strand.  _“It’s a wonder you can do that.”_  

She jumped a little.  “I didn’t hear you come in.”

Thorin walked up behind her and laid his hands softly on her shoulders.  “You were lost in thought.”

“That seems to be most of my days.”

He picked up a brooch from the desk and marveled at the sable and black weavework under the crystal.  “Frerin.”

“And you.  The hair of two brothers.  I wear it proudly.”

“Such delicate work.  My fingers could never do it.”

She looked at the piece she was starting, a delicate blend of gold and sable.  “I was hoping to have enough to finish this one.”

Their thoughts were interrupted by a stout knocking upon the door.  Dis lowered the lid on her desk and followed her brother out to the front of the house.  Two dwarves were on the porch, their ponies cropping grass in the yard.  He knew them, both lately gone out with the search parties.  “Kolbjorn, Kjolv, please come in,” Thorin welcomed them inside. 

The short, dark haired dwarves bowed to them both.  _“Melhekhul,_ M’Lady,” Dis had long ago discarded honorifics.  “We ‘ave word ‘nly fer yu.”

“Please, come into the kitchen, eat and warm yourselves,” Dis led them through the house.  She could never remember which brother was Wolf and which was Bear, they looked so much like each other and both were of the very wild Border Patrol that roamed the mountains around Ered Luin.  She pulled plates of sliced ham and cheese from the cold room and started slicing bread at the sideboard while Thorin sat down with them.  They received messengers every few weeks from the search parties, even if it was only to say where they had been searching and where they would be going next.  It was always better than no news at all.  So Dis’ head jerked up when she heard Thorin ask, _“Are you sure?”_

“Aye,” Kolbjorn nodded, his thick black beard and hair nearly covering his face.  “Prince an’ Captn’ ‘old up ‘gethur et inn, say t’wait n’Thorin.”

Kjolv held forth a piece of folded parchment which Dis took with shaking fingers.  Unfolding it she looked at the raven scrawled on the inside.  It was Nori’s prearranged signal to send should he find her son.  _“Kili.”_

Kjolv nodded, his braids swinging wildly.  “Nori ey’d ‘im ‘is un self.”

_“Thank you,”_ Dis whispered, staring at the scrap in her hand. 

Thorin stood.  “Please, sit and eat while I go fetch Balin.  We will need to move fast.”

Dis put the kettle on and dived back into her pantry for more food.  She brought out ale and poured red wine and spices into the mulling pot to warm.  Turning to the brothers she asked about the snows on the road to get there.  “Aye be no deep,” answered Kjolv.  (It was Kjolv, wasn’t it?)  “Leight,” illustrated Kolbjorn, clapping his hands together in the air.  “Win’ make snow fly.”

Dis was worried about getting there and back, how many nights they’d have to spend out in the open, how much food and how many ponies they’d need to take and what if someone were injured?  What if Kili were unable to travel?  She poured the hot wine for the two grateful dwarves and went back into the pantry for more food, laying out honey cakes and a bowl of boiled eggs. 

Thorin returned with Balin, Oin and Gloin.  Pulling the map that he had been using to track the searches progress he unrolled it in the table and asked, “Where?”

 Kolbjorn thumped a stubby finger down on a city far down the trade route.  “Wait’n fer us un inn here.  Nori say ‘e in ston’ keep ‘here.”  Thorin made a mark on the map where Kolbjorn had indicated.  There wasn’t even a “here” to name, but a lot of shabby little settlements sprung up wherever mining was to be had. 

“How many?” asked Gloin.

“’e say bring all as cun ‘old un axe,” answered Kjolv around a mouthful of bread.  Like Nori they appreciated real food after months on the road.  Dis and Balin looked at each other.  Even if they pulled every town guard they could spare would it be enough?

 

* * *

 

 

A week later saw two short, rough dwarves walking down the unpaved road of a dirty mining town, having eaten a rancid meal that might have been roast horse and swilled downed several tankards of goat-piss ale at a seedy tavern.  It was only because they looked like they might kill someone, or maybe already had killed someone, that nobody tried to roust them up for their coin.  They had seen the familiar peak of auburn hair in the tavern, or better to say he saw them and was now following, although they were not sure where.  Far enough outside of the town so as not to be discovered by accident waited Dis, Thorin, Fili, Dwalin, Balin, Gloin and any number of other dwarves come with a single purpose in mind; find Kili and, if possible, kill the dwarf who took him.

 

* * *

 

 

Thorin had been reluctant for Dis to come and when she left the house in her trousers and coat, her sword on her hip, had tried to make her turn around, go back inside.  _“I’ll twist your stones off,”_ she replied grimly and the others took a step back.  The truth was Thorin was worried.  Half the dwarves with them were not even warriors really, just dwarves who knew how to handle themselves in a fight.  He longed for the surety of an army at his back but was afraid to wait for how long it would take for warriors to arrive from other settlements.  He was also afraid that news of what they were doing would spread and Kili would disappear, or worse.

He saw Kolbjorn and Kjolv return to camp.  They bowed briefly in his direction and then went to chat with a equally wild-looking dwarf sitting near the fire.  He had been a warrior until an orc had broken his head.  Now he went out with the huntsmen and ran a toy stall in the market.  The chatted together in an old form of Khuzdul peppered liberally with gestures, speaking so fast that Thorin couldn’t follow what they were saying.  The dwarf sitting next to them was the toymaker’s cousin.  Thorin’s memory informing him that he was a miner who sat in the square on market day and spun stories for the children.  He was friends with Fili and Kili, the three of them having broken up a tavern or two in fine style.  These dwarves were here not out of any sort of loyalty to him or duty, but out of friendship and a sense that their community was challenged.  Looking at them Thorin wondered how many of them he would be bringing back slung over their saddles. 

He shook his head and walked over to the tent he shared with his family and was not at all surprised to see Nori already there, drawing over a map of the local countryside.  “There’s a mine here,” he was saying.  “That’s almost all men workin’ it.  Here’s the town and up here on this hill is the keep.”

“How do we get in?” Thorin asked him.

“You don’t,” he answered.  “They close up those doors you’ll never get in.”

“Then what?” asked Dis.

“We sneak him out.  Make a run for it in the middle of the night.” 

Dwalin didn’t like the sound of that.  “I’ve never run from a fight.”

“Don’t worry,” Nori leaned back and regarded him.  “Fight will come to you.  As soon as they find him gone they’ll be after us.” 

“Can you do it?”  The pleading look Dis gave him made his heart lurch.  Never in his life had he ever heard anyone say an unkind word about her.  Even those that didn’t like Thorin, and there were many, paid the boys’ mother their respects.  Maybe she made him think of his own Mum, now in the Halls of Waiting.  Maybe it was her work on behalf of the poor of their community, the little kindnesses, the way she never spoke down to anyone.  He decided he would do this thing or come to consequences trying. 

“I will do my best.”

She put a grateful hand on his shoulder.  “That is all I can ask.”

 

* * *

 

 

Kili followed Hilgot quietly as she led him by the hand on their way back to his room after the evening meal.  He was tired; tired of being held, tired of hands on him, tired of being shown off in front of the rank crowd.  He just wanted her to brush his hair and talk to him until he fell asleep.  He would eat for her if she would stay and talk.  The guards were following some distance behind, she being the only one who would even get close to him now.  As they approached his door Kili looked up and saw a servant coming down the hallway in the opposite direction, arms full of soiled linens.  Everyone pretty much ignored the servants and they went about their business quietly, changing out beds and taking away trash and chamber pots in anonymity.  The dwarf pressed himself to the wall as they passed and Kili could see that he had a long auburn braid that was tucked into his belt.  _Something about that Kili felt he should remember…_   As she stopped to find his key on the ring that hung from her belt he heard two soft thumps behind him, then he was being pushed roughly through the door, a hand rudely pressed over Hilgot’s mouth, her eyes wide with fear.

Suddenly Kili understood what was happening and he was forcing himself between Hilgot and the dwarf behind them.  _“No!”_ he hissed. _“Don’t hurt her!”_

_“We don’t have time!”_ the other dwarf hissed back, trying to free his arm from Kili’s grip.  _“We have to move, now!”_

_“I won’t leave without her!”_

_“Don’t be a fool!  She’ll scream and they’ll be all over us!”_

_“She won’t!  We’ll take her with us!”_

_“No!”_

Kili shoved him back, turning to place an arm around her.  _“She’s my friend.  My only friend and I won’t leave her here!”_

Nori looked at her warningly.  _“Can you keep her quiet?”_

_“She’ll be quiet, I promise.”_

Nori shifted nervously on the balls of his feet.  _“If you so much as breath I will shove this knife up through the roof of your mouth and leave you to die.”_   She nodded, eyes wide.  He turned back towards Kili and motioned to a pile of plain-looking garments stacked on the bed.  _“Put those on.”_

Hilgot pulled down Kili’s hair while he changed.  Outside, Nori dragged the guards into an unused room and covered them with the blankets he had dropped.  When he returned Kili was dressed as one of the servants in plain clothing and a hooded tunic.  _“Stay close behind me,”_ Nori instructed them. _“Not a sound, we have to be quick!”_

They locked the door behind them and slid down the hall like errant shadows.  Nori seemed to already have sussed out the servants staircases, keeping them away from the guards.  Most of those who served were either in the kitchen or waiting in the hall but Nori knew that soon these back staircases would be thick with activity.  He led them through the wash room to an outside door into the laundry yard.  There was snow on the ground and he paused.  _“You,”_ he indicated Hilgot with a flick of his knife.  _“You go in front of him.  Kili you need to step in her bootprints.”_

And so they went leaving only two sets of prints in the snow for their pursuers to follow.  Around the back of the keep and to a small door in the wall that opened for chamber pots and refuse to be dumped outside.  Normally there would be guards on this gate.  _Normally._   Kili was so afraid now, his limbs shaking with it.  He had never been this afraid in all the long months behind locked doors or even when Greylock had pressed the killing knife to his face and threatened to put his eyes out.  He glanced back at the keep, expecting him to be looking out over the yard, expecting him to see them as they ran.  Surely someone would see them!  Nori hissed at him.  _“Don’t look back!”_

They went out into the dark forest, so tense that they might leap clear of their skins had they come across anyone.  They went as before, Nori walking ahead and just to the side of Kili, Hilgot in front so they still left only two sets of bootprints in the snow.  Kili faltered on the path, afraid to move forward and she pulled him.  She had to keep him moving.  He thought he heard movement behind them but she wouldn’t let him turn around.  Kili just knew _he_ was coming up behind them and now, so close to freedom, they were about to die. 

Nori stopped and whistled, a short lilting _pip, pip, pip._   His call was quickly answered in kind and two short, dark dwarves appeared from between the trees to their side.  “Oy, y’brung ‘nuthur,” commented one.

“Complication,” Nori answered.  “Come now, off you go!”

The two dark-haired dwarves jumped out onto the trail, one in front of Nori, one in front of Hilgot and they both took off down the path in their stomping gait, leaving clear marks to follow.  Nori had Kili and Hilgot jumped off into the trees where the others had been waiting.  “Follow the way they came,” he instructed.  “I’ll be right behind you.”  He picked up a short branch cut from one of the evergreens around them and started sweeping the footprints away as they went.  Anyone following them would continue along the trail left by Kolbjorn and Kjolv in the snow.  And after a few miles even that would vanish as the two would themselves disappear into the trees and find their way back to camp. 

Kili and Hilgot went as fast down the trail as they could while still keeping Nori in sight behind them.  He started to shiver, it was cold and neither of them had cloaks or heavy coats on.  She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and helped him keep going forward.  She had no idea where they were going or how long it would take them to get there but she wouldn’t let him falter now.  There was no going back to the keep for them.  If they were caught they were dead.  If they fell into the snow and stopped moving they were just as dead.  As she was thinking this Nori tossed the branch aside and caught up with them.  “Not far now.  Just keep moving.”

Kili thought he saw something in the trees ahead of them.  They stopped, afraid to move forward.  Again Nori sent the _pip, pip, pip_ and again it was answered, this time by four dwarves stepping out of the trees.  The shortest one stepped forward quickly and pulled his hood back revealing his golden hair and bright blue eyes.  _“Atamanel!”_

Kili almost staggered forward.  _“Fili?  You’re alive!”_

 Suddenly Fili was holding his One is his arms, Kili’s hands running frantically over his face and hair.  _“I thought you were dead,”_ Kili was openly sobbing now and Fili pressed their foreheads together.  _“It’s alright, we’re here now.”_   He felt the others surround them, their mother’s hands touching Kili’s hair as she cried, Thorin’s arms around them both.  Fili realized his other was shivering and pulled off his coat to wrap around him.  “We need to get you back to camp.”

Dwalin nodded towards Nori and the message was clear between them.  _“Well done.”_ Nori motioned up the trail with a jerk of his chin.  _“Get moving.  I’ll watch.”_

Six dwarves made their way to the camp in the snow, Thorin and Dwalin guarding their path, Fili supporting a very thin and shivering Kili who was still clutching at Hilgot’s hand and Dis, walking with a concerned look behind.  By the time they arrived at the camp Kili was barely moving under his own power.  The other dwarves gathered around the fire stood at their arrival.  “We’ll need to move soon,” Thorin barked.  “By dawn they’ll be looking for us.  Let’s put some road between us and this accursed place!”

 

* * *

 

 

Inside the tent Fili sat holding his other tightly as Kili cried without restraint into his shirt.  “It’s allright _atamanel._   Don’t cry.  I’m here with you now.”

“You were dead,” Kili sobbed.  “I saw you.”  He wouldn’t lift his face from Fili’s chest.

“I promise you I’m not,” Fili pressed kisses into his hair.  “I’m here and we’re going home.”

“No,” Kili tugged on him.  “No we’re not.  He’s coming after us and he’ll kill you again and put me in the pit!  We’ll never make it home.”

Fili looked up at Dis in confusion.  Out of all the reactions he had expected this was not one of them.  She turned and saw Hilgot watching Kili from the side of the tent with a worried expression and approached her.  _“A word?”_

Hilgot nodded and they stepped outside into the cold.  “You are the boys’ mother.”  It wasn’t a question.  Kili had spoken often of his family.

“Dis, daughter of Thrian,” Dis nodded.  “You came with Kili from the keep.”

“Hilgot, daughter of Hildefrid.  I am taking care of him.”

“Is he right to be so afraid?  What can we expect to be coming after us?”

“He is not afraid enough,” she wrung her hands without being aware of it.  “We are dead, he and I.  Greylock will find us.  This I know.”

Dis turned and walked back into the tent.  _“We need to leave now.”_

 

* * *

 

 

The road was silent snow muffling the sound of their ponies’ hooves, frigid air casting their breath in ghostly vapors against the darkness in the trees.  Nori had come last with the wild brothers, certain that they were as yet undiscovered.  Still Kili rode turning about in his saddle looking back, Hilgot on his left and Fili on his right.  He was bundled into several layers of clothing and still he was cold.  It was the cold of the dead, the knowing deep in his gut that they were never going to make it back and the end, when it came, would be all for nothing.  He was only sorry that his family was going to die with him.  His other reached out a hand to steady him, a reassuring smile on his lips.

When the sun came high over them and the ponies were stumbling on the path Thorin called a halt.  “We stop here for a few hours.  Just long enough for the ponies to rest and then we move on.”  He had hoped to make it to the nearest city large enough to have a guard he could trust but he could only push them so far.  Their only choice was to post as many sentries as possible and arm themselves in case they were found.  He spent the time in conversation with Nori, Dis and Dwalin while Kili sat in Fili’s arms, staring into the fire and not speaking. 

They broke out the cram and smoked meat but Kili paid no attention to it.  “Please eat, _nadad,”_ Fili urged.  “You need it.”

Kili pushed the food away from him and closed his eyes.  Seeing his distress Hilgot knelt next to them in the snow and pulled the food away to place it where Kili could not see it.  “You are golden Alpha he always spoke of.”

“Fili, son of Dis,” he nodded towards her.  “You came with Kili.”

“Hilgot, daughter of Hildefrid,” she returned.  “Kili is my charge.  I take care of him.”

Fili noted the way his other’s fingers reached out to grasp the cuff of her sleeve.  “Thank you for watching over him.  I’m glad to know he wasn’t alone in that place.”

She reached around and broke off a small piece of cram that Kili let her push into his mouth, chewing unobtrusively.  “We were alone, the two of us, in that place.  We had each other for company.”  Another small piece of cram.  “You grow up here?”

“The Blue Mountains, Ered Luin,” he answered.  This time a small sip of hot tea.  “Our Da was a carpenter in the settlement.”

“To look at you I would think warrior.”  Now a small bit of the smoked meat.

“Thorin raised us after our Da went to the Halls of Waiting.”  More tea now.  “He is our uncle and Dwalin is our cousin.  They trained us.”

“My husband and me,” another bite of cram, another sip of tea.  “We open a shop in mining town.  Too rough.  Now he is in Halls of Waiting, I am here.”  And so the small talk went on until the food was gone and she sat stroking Kili’s hair until he dozed off.  There was so much Fili wanted to ask her.  _What happened to him?  Did someone hurt him?  Why is he like this?_  Instead he watched her tuck the furs around his too-thin frame and brush the hair from his forehead as if she had done so many times. 

Before nightfall they were on the road again, eager to put more space between them and their pursuers.  Kili knew when the evening meal was in progress, knew Greylock would be calling for his little omega pet and when he didn’t appear someone would be sent to his room to look for him.  He knew the keep would be searched, the bodies found and then he would be coming for them.  He slid off his pony, staggered to the side of the path and leaned against a tree as his stomach rushed up into his mouth, vomiting his fear into the darkness.  Fili was by his side in a moment, rubbing circles in his back.  _“It’s okay, Kili, it’s okay.”_

Hilgot reined in her pony, fear showing plainly on her face.  “We need to go now!  He is coming!  We cannot wait!”

Thorin and Dwalin looked at each other darkly.  He had hoped they would have gotten enough of a lead that they could make it to somewhere safe, somewhere defensible, but now that didn’t look like it was going to happen.  They just weren’t moving fast enough.  He hadn’t expected Kili to be this fragile.  He watched as Dis and Fili got Kili back onto his pony.  “We may need to dig in for the night,” he told Dwalin in a low voice.  The big dwarf nodded in agreement.  They moved along for a few more hours until the came to an area where the snow was lighter and the trees offered some protection from the wind.

“We will camp here tonight,” Thorin called out.  “No lights, no fires.  They may have missed our trail but they are still searching for us.”

They got Kili into the tent as soon as it was up and he crumpled to the floor, Fili holding onto him.  Dis stroked his hair back and looked worriedly at the dark circles and tight drawn lines around his mouth.  Again Hilgot sat with them, hiding the packet of food where he could not see it.  “Would you like to hear about the town where I was raised?” she asked.  He nodded and she fed him a bite of cram.  “It was a farm town, out in the open.  My father was the ironsmith…”

 

* * *

 

 

They slept, Fili on one side, Dis on the other, trying to keep a fretful Kili warm.  He would awaken at every small sound, listen until he could identify it and fade back into a troubled sleep.  Hilgot was sleeping nearby and Thorin and Dwalin were in and out of the tent in shifts.  Finally he burrowed into Fili’s coat and managed to sleep for the rest of the night. 

Once the sky started to lighten above them Thorin got the camp on its feet again.  As Fili and Hilgot were feeding Kili his morning meal Dis entered the tent carrying his sword, bow and quiver.  “I brought these from home Kili,” she knelt down and laid them in his lap.  “They are yours and you should wear them.”

Kili’s hand closed over the grip of his bow.  It had been the last thing he had cast down before he had been taken and he never thought to see these things again.  It felt heavy in his hand, it felt solid and right and this was a part of him that had been stripped away come back to him.  He turned his large brown eyes up to her.  _“Thank you.”_ She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. 

Their moment was interrupted by shouting voices outside.  Fili jolted up from beside him and darted out the tent flap.  Dis gripped his shoulders, “Stay here!”  And then she dodged out after her older son.  Kili looked at Hilgot, she was pressing her hands over her mouth and her eyes were wide and he knew.

Outside the tent the camp was in arms.  A sentry had spotted men in the trees coming up the path they had travelled and Thorin knew there was no chance these were just travelers.  He also knew they would not be persuaded to leave on their feet.  He had been waiting for this, that point where they could run no more and would turn to defend what was theirs.  They would win as they must win but he feared the cost.  If he could have sent Kili and Dis on ahead with Fili he would have, but honor and duty made them stay.  They could no more run than he could, so they made their stand together.

Rising to his knees inside the tent Kili strapped on his swordbelt and quiver.  Fili was out there and he wasn’t going to run away and leave him this time.  If they were to fall they would fall together.  The group of men crashed against the defenses of the camp and broke back, unused to dwarven warriors.  Dwalin was the first to make his kill, a man head and shoulders taller than him who believed height gave the advantage went down with Keeper wedged firmly between his vertebra, a dwarven battle cry in his ears.  Geirmund took the legs out from another as Thorin buried his axe into the chest of a third.

As Kili emerged from the tent he didn’t hear the screams or the clash of metal, only the slow thud of his own heartbeat and the sound of ragged breath in his ears.  He saw the four most important people in his life standing to protect him against a fearsome enemy.  He would not run.  He reached up over his shoulder, drew an arrow, nocked it into his bow and pulled.  Arms shook from months of neglect, hands beaded up with sweat without gloves to contain it.  He braced himself and waited for a target to open up, not knowing if he would hit friend by mistake.  A dwarf was pushed back, a man standing over him, a short arrow found its mark.  Not the killing shot he was known for but good enough to make him drop his sword, good enough to see a boar spear go right through him.  He drew again, waiting for a clear shot, silencing the sounds around him.  Another dwarf pushed back, another opening. 

The men were not hard to push back.  Sell-swords using weapons forged by men, slow and top-heavy against dwarves who forged their own iron and spent their lives battling against creatures far more fearsome.  They stood in a solid wall and watched them retreat, breath fogging out into the cold air, wearing blood that was not their own.  Fili turned and looked at him, nodding in acknowledgement that this was right, this was where they belonged, and there would be no question of him running. 

As the others drug the bodies back down the path Fili walked back and pressed their foreheads together.  _“Bâhzundushuh.”_ Kili gripped his shoulders.  _“Sanûrzud.”_   This was good.  This was right.  And if he were to die this day at least he would die beside his One and together they would follow their father into the Halls of Waiting.  _If this is all we have, it is enough._

Dis approached to hand him the arrows she had recovered for him.  “You will need these.”  He leaned his forehead against hers.  “Thank you, _Amad.”_

They dug in to wait, grim, silent, leaning on their weapons or standing tightly together.  The cold no longer mattered nor the dim sunlight, they were united in this and would not be moved.  When the hunting party approached they came straight up the road, fierce dwarves not even trying to hide.  Thorin stood forward and cried out _“Du bekar!_   _Du bekar!  Your death is upon you!”_   Dwalin stepped forward and screamed out his battle cry, shaking the pillars of the sky above them.  Fili stepped forward and pounded a fist to his chest, chanting the _Urah_ in challenge to those who would try to take what was his, the dwarves around him taking up the call.  _“Unto the Halls of the Maker I go!  I see my Father, I see my Mother and all who came before me!  This is a good day to die!”_

Kili scanned the approaching group, looking for anyone carrying a bow and then he saw Greylock, the huge dwarf pushing up the middle like grim death itself, his eyes on fire and a heavy war axe in his hands.  His hands dropped and his breath faltered.  He did not want to die in this cold place at the hands of a dwarf who had taken him from his family.  But at least he would be with his other, his One, the dwarf he chose.  Turning to look at his golden-haired other who stood roaring his challenge he whispered, _“This will be enough…”_   He raised his bow and let an arrow fly, a scream echoing back to him. 

When the attacking dwarves crashed upon them they did not break.  These were hard dwarves, used to battle and unafraid.  To Kili’s right Dwalin cleaved a path in, Grasper in one hand, Keeper in the other, Nori dancing behind him with those sharp fleshing knives, always just a little out of reach, a touch too quick.  To his left Kolbjorn and Kjolv fought back-to-back like mirror images, wild spirits of the mountain.  Next to them Bifur, who feared nothing and left his enemies strewn out across the snow and Bofur, who fought with no finesse at all, letting hard muscle and gravity break anyone who stood before them.  Geirmund fought with a heavy axe, putting his weight behind the blows.  At the front Thorin faced Greylock, Fili on his right, Dis on his left, and Kili knew that he had to face that or lose everything that meant everything to him.  He raised his bow.

In a flash of strength and rage he closed quarters with Thorin, sweeping his axe across his chest.  Thorin jumped back and the axe caught Fili as he brought his swords up to block the blow.  Kili loosed the string and the arrow thudded home into the big dwarf’s chest.  Instead of falling back Greylock merely reached up and snapped the shaft off.  Looking up he saw Kili and there was a look of… what, hurt, betrayal there?  In a second he had body checked Thorin, knocking him back into Fili while charging past, straight at Kili who stood rooted in the snow.  Kili braced for the blow, watching the blade of the axe rise up above him, refusing to flinch.  And then he heard the high battle scream of Dis from his left and her sword was faster, cleaving the big dwarf at the shoulder.  He staggered down into the snow and she braced her boot on him, tugging the blade free to bring it down upon his neck.  _“Not my sons!”_

* * *

 

 

The battle ended quickly after that, their attackers retreating back down the path to disappear into the trees.  “Do you think they’ll be back?” Thorin asked.

“I think they’ll return to the keep and see what of his they can divvy up,” Nori answered.

“Still, would be wiser to get back on the road,” Dwalin commented. 

Fili and Kili stood together in the middle of the camp, Kili carefully looking over his One to make sure he was unharmed.  Some of the dwarves with them had been badly injured but none had fallen.  Hilgot sat by the fire cleaning and stitching a ragged cut on Geirmund’s head as Kjolv bound Kolbjorn's arm.  Nori and Dwalin went through the bodies making sure the dead were really dead while Thorin and Dis spoke quietly.  “When we return home I will send ravens to all the dwarven holds.  We will assemble an army and pull that place down to the ground.”

Fili turned and looked at Greylock’s body, lying apart from his head on the red snow.  “Is that him?”  Kili nodded.  “Why,” Fili hesitated.  “Why did he swing at you?”

Kili looked down at the big hands.  _Safest with the most dangerous dwarf he knew._   “Because I betrayed him.”

Fili looked at him without understanding.  “Betrayed him?  Kili he…”

Kili leaned into him and closed his eyes.  “I’m tired Fili.  I just want to go home.”

 

 

_TBC_

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: The OC names I use (Hilgot, Hildefrid, Geirmund, Kolbjorn & Kjolv) are all Nodic names chosen for their sound and meanings. Nali is a name the fandom came up with for Fili & Kili’s father and I’ve grown very attached to it. 
> 
> “Melhekhul!” my king  
> Hurmel = honor of (all) honors  
> Uhurud = battle  
> Mizimelûh - my jewel of (all) jewels  
> Gimlelul (my brightest star)  
> Âzyungâl - Lover  
> atamanel - endearment meaning breath of all breaths  
> Nadad – brother  
> Bâhzundushuh (my raven)  
> sanûrzud - perfect (true/pure) sun  
> amad - mother  
> Du bekar! - dwarven battle cry – to arms  
> Urah – a battle chant to make one’s enemy waiver in battle


	6. "Winters End"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bringing Kili home presents a whole new load of difficulties for Fili, Dis and Thorin to overcome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter in this series plus an epilogue. All the lose ends come home to roost.

 

 

 

 

** “Kidnapped!” **

**Part Six**

 

**_“Winters End”_ **

 

 

 

 

The trip home was miserable.  Kili was cold, underweight and had a hard time making a full days ride.  Fili had to watch him closely for signs of exhaustion.  When they did arrive at an inn he would not enter the common room and at night Fili would awaken to find him pacing the room in distress.  He could never tell Fili what frightened him, he would just tuck himself into his other’s coat and refuse to talk to anyone.  Hilgot still fed him every day, he wouldn’t eat and was terribly thin.  Finally he took her aside.

“What happened to him?” Fili asked while Kili was sleeping.  “He’s never been like this before.”

“He is still in keep,” she answered.  “Everywhere is danger.  Only Greylock keep little Omega safe.” 

“I don’t understand!  How could that murderous outcast of a dwarf been Kili’s protector?” 

“Those dwarves and men at keep,” she had a very dark look upon her face.  “Evil.  Without Greylock they would have taken him, done evil things.”

“Then why take Kili at all?”

“Because he could.”  She looked in at the sleeping form in the bed.  “He could have beautiful _mizimelûh,_ sit him in hall, so obedient.  Something they could not have, none of them.  Keep him like pet.”

Fili looked at his One, sleeping peacefully for now, and understood a little.  Kili had chosen him, wanted him, and it was the most special thing in the world.  _Because I betrayed him._  He walked quietly back into the room and climbed into the bed next to the Omega he loved more than life, pressing skin-to-skin.  Kili sighed and nestled in.  “Sleep, _atamanel._   I will be here when you wake.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When they reached Ered Luin Kili slept for three days.  Fili, Dis and Thorin took turns watching him in case he woke.  He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t see his old friends when they came to the house.  Oin was concerned by his low body weight.  “Frankly he’s never been heavy enough, in my opinion.”  Fili shot him an annoyed look.  “But I expected him to fill out when he reached one-hundred or so.  Is he eating anything at all?”

“He ate on the road and at the inns we stayed at, but only a little,” Dis answered.  “But if we tried to get a full meal down him it would all come back up.”

“He ate for his friend,” Fili put in.  “She came with us from the keep.  She took care of him.  Her name is Hilgot.”

“Aye, she’s working in my infirmary now,” Oin answered.  “I’m glad to have her.  She has an uncommon way about her.”

“Maybe she could come and see him?” Dis asked.  They were at a loss.

“I will send her over for supper, see what she can do.”  He was scratching out a list on some rough paper.  “Feed him these if you can, puts weight on a body faster.  If he can’t eat a full meal just give him small food whenever he’s awake.  Keep him eating until he turns around.”

When he left Dis looked over the list.  Instead of wild game he wanted Kili to eat farm-raised meat and fowl, eggs, fish, flax seeds and nuts if they could get them and an assortment of garden foods.  “I can do this.  I can go to the butcher now and see what he has.  Nuts I can get at market day, fish and fowl we can get anytime.”

Fili trudged back upstairs, trying not to make noise.  Kili was lying awake, watching the door.  He walked over and sat on the bed.  “How are you feeling?”

Kili seemed to wrestle with that thought for awhile.  Finally he whispered, “Tired.”

Fili stroked his hair.  It seemed thin and brittle.  “Would you like me to lay down with you?”  Kili nodded and waited for Fili to disrobe and crawl in with him.  Fili lay under the furs, softly stroking his other’s back and shoulders.  Oin was right to be concerned.  He could feel every rib and bump on his spine.

“You didn’t lock the door.”

File looked at him.  “What?”

“You didn’t lock the door.  You have to lock the door.”

“We’re safe here, with Mum and Thorin.  No one will hurt you.”  Fili caressed his cheek.

_“You have to lock the door Fili.”_   Kili was starting to look distressed so Fili pulled out from under the furs and padded over to the door and slid the bolt home.  “There, is that better?”  Kili nodded and waited for him to return.  Burrowing back down into his other’s chest he drifted back to sleep.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Hilgot came for the evening meal as promised.  Dis gripped her shoulders in welcome.  “How are you faring at the infirmary?”

“Good,” she removed her cloak.  “Is good work for me.  Plenty to do with stubborn old dwarf.”

Dis laughed.  If anything described Oin that was it.  “We need your help with Kili.  He won’t eat, he only sleeps.  Oin says he’s not injured or fevered but I am afraid that I may still lose my son.”

Hilgot nodded as they walked into the kitchen, keeping her voice low so her words would not carry upstairs.  “He has been that way for some time.  Afraid, right to be afraid, but now he cannot stop.  You must feed him and talk to him.”

“Did he eat for you?”  Dis felt so desperate.

“At first he was very angry, fighting hard.  He tried to run away but always they catch him.  Then Greylock put knife on his face and say next time he put out eyes and give Kili to his men.  Then he runs no more.”  She stopped as Dis lost her composure, sobbing into her hand.  Gently placing her hands on Dis’ shoulders Hilgot continued.  “I am sorry to tell you these things.  I know it hurts to hear them, but you must know.”

Dis wiped away her tears and nodded.  “You’re right.  I have to know if I’m going to help him.”

“He grew sad and frightened.  Thought his beautiful Alpha was dead, cried for him.  I think he wanted to follow him.”

“Fili fell defending him.  We thought he would die at first he was so hurt.”

“Kili stopped eating.  I would sit and tell him stories, give him food.  He cannot look at it or know how much he eats.  Greylock would force him to eat from his plate, drink from his cup, would make him sick.”

Dis passed her hand over her eyes.  “Greylock, did he…?

“No, hands only.  He had his whores, Kili was not for that.”

“Then what was he for?”

“To show off.  To pet.  To hold.  Someone to give him Omega-born sons.  Something to be proud of.”  Her brow wrinkled at the strange contradiction.  “Very dangerous he was, but very protective of Kili.  He would sit him in lap and show men and dwarves he had something they could not get.  No one touch.  He kill a man for touching.”

“What happened?”  Dis knew several fistfights had broken out over Kili, his brother coming home proudly sporting black eyes and bloody knuckles.  Usually misunderstandings ended in a hasty apology and quick retreat.  Their friends broke up the fights when they didn’t.  “Men from mining camp, stupid.  They not know about Omega.  Man called Kili a whore and put hand on him.” 

Fili would have erupted if someone did that to his other.  “And Greylock killed him?”

“Greylock break his shoulder with his hands, then his arm.  I saw blood and bone come through skin.  Greylock stomp on back, break that, too.  Have guard drag him off to pit.  We could hear him screaming.  No one talk to Kili after that, only me.”

Dis sat down.  This was too much to hear.  Hilgot went on.  “To Kili everything is danger.  No one to protect him.  He is afraid.”

Dis looked at her.  _“I am afraid.”_

Hilgot took her hand.  “I will help.  We will make him better.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Kili lay in the bed hidden down under the furs with his head on Fili’s chest.  He was quiet, but Fili knew he wasn’t asleep.  He would leave the bedroom door open so Kili could peer out over him and watch anyone going back and forth, hear the sound of voices speaking, the household in motion.  But when that door was closed Kili insisted it be bolted tight, one of his “safety rules” as Fili started to think of them.  The door must be locked.  Kili must walk the floor before sleeping.  He could not take food.  Could not eat a full plate.  Would not drink ale.  Someone had to take his clothing and fold it.  Would not raise his voice.  Would not look anyone in the eye.  Would not go outside.  It made Fili’s head swim.  Several times he had brought snow inside for Kili, handfuls of pure whiteness soft and fluffy or hard and crunchy.  Kili loved snow and would share it with Fili but if anyone else walked in he would turn towards the wall and hide it.

The rules could not be broken but they could be stretched if even just a little.  Fili devoted himself to finding ways to push those boundaries outwards, like leaving the door ajar if Kili were hidden beside him.  Anyone entering the room pretended they didn’t see the wide brown eyes peering up at them from under his shoulder while they spoke with Fili and when that person departed they would discuss what was said in whispered voices.  Ori proved especially good at this, coming in with the day’s news and gossip, placing his knitting on the bed while he made soft gloves and scarves in muted colors, pretending he did not see the hand that crept out to touch balls of yarn or the end of a scarf.  Once Fili discovered a pair of dark green fingerless gloves under the blankets and assumed that Ori had deliberately placed them where he knew Kili would reach for them.  Gimli came to with tales of hunting and new things he had learned at the forge.  He brought several daggers he had made, very good apprentice work, one which he left sitting on the bedside table that promptly was squirreled away under their pillows. 

So Fili was surprised when Dis walked in with a tray of food and announced that they had a visitor.  “Someone is here to see you Kili.”

Hilgot walked in behind her and seated herself at Kili’s side while Dis set up the tray behind his line of sight.  “How is Kili today?” she asked him directly.  Fili was about to reply when Kili spoke up.  “Tired,” he said in a soft voice.

“You had long journey to come home,” she went on.  “This is golden Alpha you spoke of?”

“Fili,” Kili wiggled up a little.  “His name’s Fili, and he’s mine.”  Fili was afraid to move or speak.  This was more than Kili had said to anyone but him for a week.

“Loves you, he does.  Fought very hard to get you back.”  Kili pushed himself up until he was propped fully up against Fili’s shoulder.  “He loves me more than anything.”  Fili gently pressed a soft kiss into his hair.  He had placed himself in danger’s path for Kili and would do so again, and no matter what it took he would see him through this. 

Hilgot rearranged some things on the tray.  “Your mother made some special food just for you.”

Kili looked away.  “I’m not hungry.”

“Maybe if I tell you story?”  It was a statement more than a question.  This had been their routine for months since Kili had first stopped eating.  He nodded and she spooned up a small bite of dumpling.  “When I leave keep no place there is for me to go.  Happy I was to be out, but no husband, no home, no money.”  Now a small bite of chicken.  “Thought to go as far as city, work in tavern, have roof over head.  Your mother asked I should come here.  So I did.”  A sip of a special tea Oin had left.  “I meet grumpy old dwarf.  Is healer.  Needed help with dwarves hurt under bad rock.  So I had work to do.”  More chicken.  “His office… jars and bottles everywhere, papers need put away.”  More tea.  “So much work for me to do.  But still here are friends for me.”  And so it went until the entire bowl had disappeared and she carefully covered the tray with a hand towel.  “Is good you eat a little,” she told him, stroking his hair.  “Pretty Alpha will get cold if not here to warm him.”

After she left Kili did not pace the floor.  He lay against Fili letting him stroke his hair as soft voices filtered through the house.  _“Would you get cold without me?”_   Fili pressed soft kisses into his hair.  _“I would never be warm again.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Dwalin paused at the doorway to the archives, carved wooden box in his hand.  This was not somewhere he would ever normally be and he felt awkward.  His domain was the forge, the weapons yard, the tavern.  He made things with his hands and broke them just as easily.  He raised his voice in battle and in song.  He was the Warrior of Aulё set on the stone to strike fear into the hearts of the spawn of Melkor.  He was _not_ a dwarf to wander a hall filled with delicate and irreplaceable manuscripts.  His big fingers were not made to touch parchment scrolls or hand-sewn bindings.  He did not read for enjoyment.  In fact it came to him with great difficulty, making his teachers think him to be thick-skulled and muscle-brained.  The truth was he was very smart; level-headed when others panicked, calculating when others foundered.  It was just that the runes and letters never lined up right for him and his early frustrations drove him towards the things that he was good at, becoming a warrior so fierce that his schoolmates stopped whispering about him even when he wasn’t around to hear it. 

So now here he was about to walk into the one place he really didn’t want to be.  He felt an all too familiar tightness roiling up in his gut and wished he could at least come up with a reasonable excuse to be there but there wasn’t one really.  He was there for one purpose and one purpose only, so he took a deep breath and soldiered on.  The archives were bigger than he had thought they would be.  Rows upon rows of leather-bound books, drawers full of scrolls, scribes bent over desks.  He was honestly beginning to wonder what in Middle Earth anyone could possibly write so many words about when a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts.  “Oh!  Hello, I thought that was you!”  Looking down he saw the object of his intentions smiling up at him.

“Ori, just who ah was here to see,” he smiled back, pleased to see the happy look on the little ginger’s face. 

“Really?  Did I forget a training day?”  He looked worried.  “I’m so sorry!”

“No, nuthin’ like that,” Dwalin reassured him.  “Is just that I came across this in one of the cities we went through on the road an’ thought you might like it.”

Ori took the box over to his desk and opened it.  “Oh, my!  An illumination kit!”  Suddenly Dwalin found himself with an armful of happy ginger-haired Omega.  “Thank you!”  The other scribes caved into curiosity and left their work, crowding around Ori’s desk to look.  As they ooh’d and ahh’d at the delicate brushes and vibrant colors Dwalin began to feel quite proud of himself.

“I could never get these inks here.  _Is that lapis?!”_ Ori was delighted.  Dwalin was now feeling the whole dangerous trek to the archives was worth it when a polite cough sounded from behind him.  Turning, he found himself looking into the disapproving eyes of Ori’s eldest brother.  “A word, if you please.”

Dwalin nodded and followed him into the next room, internally debating how much trouble he would be in for pulling his weapons in this place.   _Probably a lot._   He squared his shoulders and waited for the other to speak first.  “Mister Dwalin,” began Dori.  “I do believe you are aware of the customs of our people?”  It was more of a statement than a question.

“Aye.”

“And so you would be aware that, by tradition, any courting gifts would first be approved of by the family before being presented?”

“Aye.”

“And yet you just presented Ori with an entirely elaborate set of illuminations materials.”  By Mahal, did he have to use big words every time he spoke?

“Well, Master Dori,” Dwalin replied very politely.  “Ori did say to me that he could ner find such things in this town’s market so I secured those on his behalf during mah travels.”

“Yes, but…”

_“And,”_ he went on.  “Should we be courtin’ I would certainly present them to you in a proper fashion, but seein’ as we are not…”

“Dori, what are you doing?”  Ori poked his head in the door.

“Ori!,” Dori at least had the good grace to look sheepish.  “We were just discussing…”

“I know what you were discussing!”  Ori grabbed Dwalin by the arm and pulled him back towards his desk.  _“Oh Mahal, Dori!  It’s not like we’re courting or anything!”_

Dori knew when he was defeated.  There was no hope for it but to start inviting the big warrior over for dinner.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Kili woke to find himself alone in the bed, the furs tucked tightly around him.  He blinked owlishly for a moment, looking around for his One, only to see Thorin sitting in the chair next to him, working on something in his lap.  Thorin smiled.  “He’s not here.  Dwalin came and took him to the training ground to work out.  But your mother and I are.”

Kili didn’t answer that.  He just slid back down into the warmth beneath the blankets and watched his uncle’s hands.  “I had some things to do here so I stayed to keep you company,” Thorin continued.  Kili could see feathers in his lap, large goose flights like he used for fletching that Thorin was carefully splitting and scraping. 

“You’re doing that wrong.”

Thorin raised an eyebrow in his direction.  He had been the one to teach the boys to hunt but no dwarf used a bow as well as Kili did. 

“You’re stripping them wrong.”

He offered the little knife and a feather over to him.  “Show me.”  Kili slid up until he was sitting back against the headboard and took the tools in his hands and for the next two hours sat making arrows while Thorin told him stories of Erebor that was.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Fili hacked away at the practice pells, going through his routine, burning off frustrated, pent-up energy.  As much as he loved the long days in bed with Kili after being apart for so long the hurt he saw there was torturous.  The rules, the hiding, the refusal to eat or speak.  Kili was afraid and broken and he wanted to smash the dwarf responsible in the face over and over until he ceased to exist.  The trouble was he was already dead and even if he wasn’t, killing him again, no matter how good it made him feel would not help Kili get well again.  He was angry at the men who took him and who would likely never answer for that crime.  He was angry at the dwarves who had stood by and watched it happen.  And he held back that anger whenever he was in the house, Kili didn’t need to be frightened any more than he was, but it burned inside of him.

Kili’s secrecy about what had happened made it harder.  He didn’t know who had touched him, hurt him, caused that fear and the not knowing boiled up within him.  When he was in the house he had to stay calm and controlled.  He had to quiet all the questions he wanted to ask.  Not grab Kili and stare at him until he found the happy little brother that had once been there.  He wanted to hurt someone, break someone and he had nothing.  The sound of wood cracking snapped his thoughts back to the present.  He had broken the wooden practice sword he had been using and his left shoulder ached.

“Had ‘nuff?”  Dwalin’s voice sounded from behind him.

Fili rubbed his chest.  “Mahal, Dwalin, I don’t know what to do.”

Dwalin patted him firmly.  “Yer angry, yeh have a right to be.”

“Fuck!  I just want to break things!”

Dwalin took the broken sword from him.  “Then come here an’ break things.  Come every day if yeh need to.”

“I can’t, Kili needs me.”  Fili scrubbed his hand across his face, wet with perspiration.  “I have to get back.  He might have woken and I won’t be there.”

“Kili needs you sane,” Dwalin tossed the broken sword on the woodpile.  “Hovering over him with no way to get yer anger out won’t make him better.  Meet me here in the afternoons and I’ll give yeh a workout.  You can watch meh back.”

“Watch your back?  Why?”

Dwalin looked around to see if anyone was in earshot.  “Nori an’ Dori,” he said in a low voice.

Fili barked out a laugh.  “You don’t do anything halfway do you?”

Dwalin shrugged and nodded.  “I want yeh to head over to Oin’s and get that scar checked.  I kin see yeh pullin yer left arm.”

“But Kili…”

“Is with yer Mum and Thorin.  He’ll be fine for now.  Go.”  Dwalin sent him off with a firm shove.

Fili chafed at having to take a detour home, but Dwalin was right; anger bottled up eventually overflowed and injuries neglected didn’t heal.  He walked to the infirmary to look for Oin.

“Fili,” a familiar voice greeted him.  Hilgot’s smile changed to a look of concern.  “Is Kili well?”

“No, I mean yes,” Fili stuttered.  “He was sleeping when I left.  Dwalin wanted me to come get my scar checked.  It’s pulling.”

“Oin is not here.  Injury to attend to.  I can look.”  She motioned for him to remove his coat and shirt.

Fili felt a little awkward.  Oin and birthed both him and his brother and treated all of their injuries.  As if sensing his discomfort she said, “Mother was healer, I help her since I was small.  Many older brothers, always trying to kill each other.  Let me see.”

He laughed at that and shrugged his shirt off.  She had him move the arm and stretch to see where it pulled.  “Hilgot, may I ask you something?”

“Ask, I will try to answer.”

He wanted to ask what happened in the keep.  He wanted to ask if Greylock had done more than touching.  He wanted to ask…  “How did… Why did you live in the keep?”

“My husband and me come to town to open shop.  Good business in mining town.  At first we do well.  Then husband start to drink, fight, got stabbed in tavern.  We owe money so I had to sell shop.  No way to get back home.  Someone say come to keep, serve, clean, do laundry, save money to get home.  I go, they not let me leave.”

“Like Kili.”  He lowered his arm.  “Thank you for taking care of him.”

She handed him his shirt.  “I was mother too, once.”

“You had a son?”

“Little girl.  Dova, my Little Dove.”

“What happened?”

“Caravan came through village off trade road.  One was ill with sweat.  Soon many in the village fall ill with sweat.  Some things,” she shook her head.  “Some things cannot be fixed.”

“I’m sorry.”  Fili felt an overwhelming sense of sadness.

“I will see her soon enough.  She will always be happy little girl.”  She handed him his coat.  “There is no bruising at scar, skin does not open.  You need to work it every day or else get used to not using arm.”

“I will, thank you.”  He slid back into his coat.  “Will you come see us soon?”

“If not needed here I will come.”  She bade him farewell and turned back to her work.

 

 

* * *

 

 

When Fili returned to the house his mother swatted him away.  “Ugh!  Into the bath with you!”

“Smell of a warrior, Mum!  Come here, let me hug you!”  He spread his arms wide and advanced upon her.

“No,” she whacked him firmly.  “Go on now.  And take your brother with you!”

He marched up the stairs in a much better mood than when he had departed.  Kili was sitting up in bed listening to Thorin talk.  “Fee!”

“Hey, you!”  Fili tossed off his coat, pulled the blankets back and lifted his other out of the bed, ignoring his indignant squawks.  “Bath time!”  He carried him down to the bathing room where their mother had already started the boiler going for them.  There he pulled their clothes off, tossing them all over the floor and sat his other down on the bench for scrubbing.  The boiler had already warmed the room and Fili started in on his brother’s hair, gently scratching at his scalp and massaging soap into the brittle locks.

“You’re happy,” Kili commented, his voice quiet.

“I am.  I got to work my shoulder and I found out something about Dwalin.”  He knew that would get Kili’s interest.

“Dwalin?”

“Um-hmmm…  He’s in trouble.”  Fili carefully started to rinse his hair, trying to keep the water off of his face.  Kili never liked water on his face.  “With who?”  Kili let him soap over the rest of his body, rubbing the fragile skin with care.

“Nori and Dori.”  Fili lovingly caressed his hands over him.  “Seems he’s been very friendly with Ori lately and they don’t like it.  We can ask Ori next time he comes to visit.” 

Kili carefully unbraided Fili’s hair, setting the silver beads aside.  “Thorin’s leaving,” he spoke the words in a whisper.

“Leaving?  Why?” 

Kili rubbed his fingers into the thick golden locks.  “They’re going to pull down Greylock’s keep.”

Fili was silent at that.  Thorin hadn’t told him he was going or what they intended to do.  He had a deep and overwhelming urge to go, to kill as many as he could, to watch it all burn.  _“I don’t want you to.”_

He looked back at Kili, so thin, so small.  _“Gimlelul?”_

_“I don’t want you to go.”_ Kili’s eyes were wide, pleading.  _“Please don’t leave me here alone.”_

Fili’s heart lurched.  “It would only be for a halfmoon.  Maybe a few days more.”

“Half a moon and I won’t know if you’re alive or dead.”  He let his hands drop into his lap.  _“Please.”_

Fili had to make a decision.  Fight a flesh and blood enemy a hard week’s ride away or stay here and fight one that he could not see.  In the weeks since his return Kili had started gaining weight, had started talking again, but he was still broken and locked into his fears.  He had to make the hard decision.  “If you need me I will stay.”

Tears started to drip down Kili’s face.  “I’m sorry.  I’m sorry.”

Fili took his face in his hands and kissed him, stilling the words of regret that were tumbling from his other’s mouth.  _“I love you.  I will not leave you.  Don’t cry.  Please don’t cry.”_ Fili had never shied away from doing what was hard and he wouldn’t now.  He would forego his revenge, stay and fight the monsters at Kili’s doorstep.  _“You haven’t done anything wrong.”_

Kili let himself be steered into the soaking tub where he relaxed into Fili’s arms.  The large tub was one of the few luxuries they had, a gift from Nali’s father when Nali built the house for Dis.  Kili lay tracing his fingers over the bright scar on Fili’s chest.  Fili pressed his hand over his to cover it.  “I think I’ll get it inked.”

“The scar?”

“Yeah.  I’ll ask Dwalin to do it.”

“What will it say?”

“I don’t know yet.  I’ll have to think on it.”

Kili laid his head down and closed his eyes.  _“Put a raven on it.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Dis took the opportunity to change the bedding out in the boys room.  She peeled the furs and blankets back only to reveal a mixture of items scattered around underneath.  Pulling the pillows revealed more.  A dagger with Gimli’s stamp on it, a pair of green, fingerless knit gloves and a dark blue scarf.  Those must have come from Ori.  The little knife Thorin used to trim and shape fletching arrows.  A spoon.  Several keys she had been looking for.  An assortment of hair beads and Fili’s hair clip.  She looked at the little pile of objects that somehow represented safety and security to her injured son.  She wasn’t sure exactly why he felt he needed these things.  Maybe they represented the people they had come from.  She changed the linens and stashed them all underneath the pillows when she was done.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Fili lay face down on the bed, screaming into his pillow, Kili pressed firmly across his lower half as he picked at his legs.  This was Kili’s favorite thing to do to him.  Well, one of them anyway.  Unlike Kili, whose leg hair grew in rather smooth, Fili’s golden fur tended to be curly and he ended up with ingrown hairs on his thighs.  Kili would wrestle him down and lay on him, picking at them without mercy while Fili squirmed underneath him.  If it wasn’t for the skin-to-skin contact or the fact that it usually ended with Kili’s mouth on him Fili would have never allowed it.  As it was Fili was ready to leap out of his skin.

_“Kili!”_ Fili growled into the pillow. _“That hurts!”_

Kili responded by flipping him over and attacking his front.  Fili pulled the pillow over his face.  Kili went over his skin an inch at a time, scritching and plucking, while Fili tried unsuccessfully to slide out from underneath him.  Finally Kili crept up into his arms and laid his head on his shoulder and closed his eyes.

“Feel better now?” Fili asked.  Kili nodded in reply but did not say anything.  Fili pulled the furs over them, trying to hide his half-full erection.  Usually they’d be intertwined by now, rutting shamelessly against each other.  Now Kili just seemed tired.  He watched as his other drifted off to sleep.  _“I love you_ _atamanel and I’ll be here when you wake.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Several weeks later Thorin stood once again at the keep in the wilderness, this time at the head of a small army of warriors sent from neighboring dwarven holds.  Dwalin stood beside him, leaning comfortably on his hammer, used to the long waiting before a battle.  They were quiet in the darkness, waiting for a signal from the small auburn-haired thief he had sent inside.  They were watching a small door in the keep wall, two guards inside, two guards outside, and Thorin could smell the refuse heap nearby.  The other dwarf lords had not hesitated to lend their aid to this.  There could be no forgiveness for those who would willfully break one of the most sacred of their laws.

As they watched the door opened from the inside and stayed open, as if of it’s own accord.  The guards looked at each other and then one after the other went in to look.  Not smart, but then how dumb did you have to be to get roped into guarding a cesspool?  Nori popped his head out and whistled the short _pip, pip, pip._   Thorin raised his hand and signaled them to move forward.  By morning most of the dwarves and men inside would be dead.  In two days they would have the place burned from the inside and the stones pulled to the ground. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Dis walked down to the creek in the morning light, her fishing bag over her shoulder and a bucket in her hand.  As they usually did, her thoughts wandered towards her younger son.  He was home but he was not safe, his biggest challenge was that he was having trouble putting weight back on.  His unnatural thinness made him cold and gave him yet another excuse for not wanting to leave their house.  He had been a frequent eater, his natural energy seeming to burn off food as fast as he consumed it, but now just getting food into him had become a group effort.  He bargained for food; would eat in exchange for a story, but couldn’t look at the plate or really even feed himself.  It was as if he denied himself permission to just do this simple thing he had done every day of his life. 

The one thing he had started eating was the nuts she was bringing home from the marketplace.  She had brought a bowl to crack while she was sitting with him one day while Fili was at the training grounds and he had discretely started sneaking them out when he thought she wasn’t looking, so she made a pouch that she could leave under his blanket and every day it would be empty.  Perhaps he could not allow anyone to see him eat or maybe stolen food did not count, in any case she was determined to get him to feed himself. 

Sitting at the bank of the creek she divested herself of her boots and coat and unpacked her fishing bag.  Thorin had no patience for it but Nali had loved it, taking her frequently before the boys were born.  Fili and Kili enjoyed it as well, Fili attempting to stalk the fish with a long, many pronged spear while Kili just flopped into the water and chased after them until he could flip one out bear-style.  She smiled as she spread her net and anchored the tether beneath a large rock.  When the sun finally melted the snows she would bring them all out here and let the boys splash around while they baked fish in clay under a fire.  They would bring Ori, Gimli and Hilgot with them as well, and Dwalin, who couldn’t fish to save his life but greatly enjoyed eating them. 

She rolled up her pant legs and slipped quietly into the chill stream, walking over the smooth rocks, careful not to splash.  There were several good-sized fish in the water.  They moved out of her way but didn’t dart.  Slowly moving back and forth she brought her net across to where they could no longer swim away.  Reaching in she trailed her hands in until she had a fish backed against the net and neatly flipped him out of the water and into the bucket of water.  She repeated this smooth gathering technique until she had a good bucketful and gathered her net up.  Returning to the bank she proceeded to dispatch and clean her catch, offering a prayer to Yavanna as she did so.

Looking up she noticed several large ravens watching her from the rocks poking out of the patchy snow.  Then the snow itself blinked at her and she realized she was looking at a fox, still in it’s winter coat.  They were all waiting for her to clean the fish so they could eat.  “Oaky,” she said.  “I hear you.”  She started tossing out fish heads and tail tips, making sure everyone got one.  The fox grabbed a head and ran with it before the ravens could steal it.  She knew that when she left they would come clean the leavings.  Nothing would go to waste.

She walked in through the kitchen door.  “Kili, Fili?  I’m home!”

“Hi Ma!”  they were in the common room bundled up in front of the fire.  Their hair was mussed and they looked happy so she assumed they had been making good use of their time alone.  “If you boys want to get the stove going I brought fish back.”

Fili scrambled up, pulling Kili behind him.  He opened the dampers and fed the coals that had been banked to keep them going, Kili whispering instruction over his shoulder.  “I know how to do this, brother.”

“You always put too much wood in at first.”

“Does it matter?  It’s all going to burn anyway.”

“You’ll smother the fire.”  Dis smiled.  Usually Kili would end up shoving his brother out of the way and doing it himself.  They managed to get a good steady burn going and put a large pot of fresh water on to heat while she scaled the fish.  She was just deciding to give them a good fry up, perhaps serve them up with an assortment of fermented and pickled vegetables from her root cellar when the front door opened with a bang.

“Hello the house!” 

“Uncle!”  Thorin walked in looking tired and careworn, a heavy pack on his shoulder and a burlap bag hanging from his hand.  He needed a bath and a hot meal, but first he wanted his family.  Kili and Fili threw their arms around him as if they were dwarfings.  Dis was up to her elbows in fish so she gently pressed foreheads with him.  “Welcome home.”

“What’s in the bag?” Fili lifted it from his hands.  Thorin set down his pack, reached into the bag and pulled out a heavy chunk of stone.  It was cracked and blackened by fire.  He dropped it with a resounding _clunk!_ onto the table.  “We pulled down the keep.  Burnt the timbers from the inside out, broke the stone, leveled it to the foundations.”

Kili stared at it.  “What about…”

“Those dwarves and men who opposed us are dead. We left them for the crows to feed upon, to serve as a warning.”  Thorin walked over to the stove and poured a mug of hot water from the kettle for tea.

“And the servants?”

“Some ran off, we think to the town or to the mine.  Those that surrendered we escorted to the nearest city.”  Kili seemed satisfied with that.

“Get that thing off my table,” Dis commanded.  “Boys, go get the boiler started in the washroom for your uncle.”

Kili scooped the offending rock off the table, carried it out the kitchen door and dropped it into the snow.  If nothing else it would make a useful doorstop.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Supper saw them all in a much better mood.  Dis insisted that they eat at the table and served everyone a plate.  In celebration of Thorin’s return she baked scones and had the boys broach a cask of pickles.  Kili sat pressed up against his other, not looking at the food on his plate.  Instead he laid his head on Fili’s shoulder listening to Thorin tell the tale of their journey and the battle. 

“Nori let us in through the back gate.  They did not know we were there until we were among them.”  Thorin happily munched down on a slice of pickle. 

“Did they think they would come to no consequence for their actions?” Fili asked.  Glancing down at his plate he noticed some of his fish was missing. 

“I do not believe anyone ever delivered retribution to their door, no,” Thorin answered, pointedly not looking at Kili.

“That’s why they were so far out in the wilderness,” Dis pointed out.  “This were not unheard of in the time of our father.  Lawless dwarves who would set up on their own, menacing the farmers and caravans.”  She reached over and slid several more servings of fish onto Fili’s plate.

“Thror would send armies to clear them out.  A king must look after the lowest of his subjects as well as the highest,” Thorin spoke around a mouthful of scone.  “Trade routes must remain clear, mines and farms must be kept safe.  His protection extended far beyond the mountain.”

“We should work with the other holds to root them all out, make sure no criminal tries to set himself up as a lord again,” Fili said, ignoring the slender fingers filching the food off his plate. 

“How do we know where they are?  They are secretive until they cause a problem so big it cannot be hidden,” Thorin replied. 

“Nori would know,” Dis produced a plate of mince tarts from the sideboard, doling one out to each of them.  “I’m sure he’s picked up such information in his travels.”

Fili broke his tart up into small pieces on his plate.  “You will have to bribe him with supper.”  Finally he reached over and discreetly swapped his plate for Kili’s untouched one.  If food from someone else’s plate was only stretching Kili’s rules and not breaking them then at least he could start to feed himself.  He took a bite of the fish.  “This is really good Mum.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The breaking of the keep seemed to trigger a change in Kili and very gradually he started to come back to himself.  The most noticeable change was the weight gain and with it a lessening of the strange behaviors and fears.  One by one the rules fell, his friends and family gently helping to bend them until they broke apart.  The first green of spring saw him bright eyed and glossy haired and now with enough weight on to not feel cold all of the time.  Ori and Gimli would visit and they would all lay under the tree, bellies full from Dis’ kitchen.  Some days they watched Kili at target practice, building his arms up again.  Finally they all went for a walk down the path through the woods to the place where that terrible thing had happened.

“You fell here,” tears fell down Kili’s face.

“And you saved me,” Fili brushed them away.  “Mum and Uncle followed the trail you left back to me.  I owe you my life.”

Kili cried unashamedly upon his shoulder and Dis and Thorin held them both.  _“I love you, I love you, I love you,”_ Fili whispered over and over to him.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Thorin and Dwalin sat together at an outdoor table in the Ered Luin marketplace eating meat pies and watching the crowd flow around them.  He made it a point of visiting each market day, shaking hands with the stall owners, exchanging news and looking at the wares that were coming in up the trade route.  It gave him a better insight on what was going on in the community, who was opening a new forge, what new family had moved into town, the celebrations, the feuds, the gossip.  It provided him with a welcome change from his usual meetings with the council and talks with the guilds.  Often Dwalin would accompany him and if they spent more time in the weapons stalls looking at new swords and axes no one commented on it.  For now they were just content to eat and drink and not have any pressing crisis to deal with.

As if Fate knew their thoughts a shout arouse across the square and in a moment Nori came pelting past them, a grin on his face and two guards at his heels.  The King and the Captain watched them go. 

“You going to chase him?”

“Still eatin’.  Don’ want ta spoil meh lunch.”

“Think he does it on purpose?”

“Aye, gives the new guards a good workout.  Considers it part of their trainin’.” 

Thorin shook his head.  They knew that when Nori was tired of the chase he’d take to the rooftops where the guard was practically useless.  Sometimes he’d be a good sport and let himself be caught but would always be out again by morning.  “How full is his pouch?”

“He could get arrested every day fer the next sixmoon and still be out the next.”  Dwalin drained his ale.  “He knows it, too.”  Nori had refused to accept any public accolades or reward for his part in Kili’s rescue.  Instead a sum was quietly gifted to his family and an apprenticeship opened up with the Illuminations Master at the Archives for Ori.  The “pouch” Thorin referred to was a bail fund, discreetly kept in the lockbox at the settlement’s jail.  Anytime Nori felt like spending a night in a cell he was bounced right back out again the next morning to the consternation of the guards who were charged with keeping him out of the marketplace. 

“Let’s hope he stays out of any real trouble.”

“You like to wager on that?”

“No…”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

_ epilogue _

 

 

 

_ Erebor, Three Years After The Fall Of Smaug _

“Fili… Fili…. _FEE!”_

Fili knelt down at the feet of his very pregnant and uncomfortable consort and placed his hands gently on his knees, gazing up at him with love and adoration.  Kili was in the last days of his confinement, ready to give birth at any time and absolutely miserable, his mate not leaving his side.  _“Yes, Gimlelul?”_

Kili was sitting in an overstuffed chair before the fire in their front room, pillows piled behind his back, looking worn out and forlorn.  “I can’t…” he waved his hands.

“Can’t…?”  Fili knew what the problem was and knew better than to smirk about it.

“I can’t get up.  Please help me?”  Fili stood and carefully lifted his beautiful, bonded Omega gently under the shoulders and eased him into a standing position.  Kili waddled unsteadily with one hand on Fili’s shoulder and one on the small of his back and huffed.  “I blame you for this.”

Fili smiled blissfully, leaning in to kiss him.  “I love you so much.”

“No you don’t.  I’m huge and I waddle like a duck and my back hurts all the time.”

“A very lovely duck.”  Fili nuzzled along his neck and smiled, a hand slipping down to rub over his mate’s rather large belly.  The unique mix of hormones Kili was giving off and Fili’s protective instincts making him besotted and just slightly obsessed with his mate. 

“I don’t know how you can even look at me right now.  I can’t see my feet and the baby is pressing on my bladder.  I have to pee…”  Fili steered him towards the bedroom.  “Come on, I’ll help you.  Then you can lay down and I’ll rub your back.”

He helped Kili undress and laid him down on the firs covering their sprawling bed.  It was a huge four-poster with draping curtains, a remainder of the Erebor that was before, a gift to them from Thorin when Fili told him they were trying for a baby _.  “This bed has been the foundation of many a royal marriage through generations in Erebor.  The wood used to make it is special, tough, ruins the tools used to carve it, yet beautiful to look upon.”_   And indeed it was, the beautiful dark grain shining with oil, the posts carved with geometric shapes, the headboard inlaid with the seven-starred seal of Durin in mithril that shone gently in the darkness.  It was sturdy and plush and opulent and they had spent the better part of a week breaking it in while Kili was fertile. 

Fili stroked his hands over his mate’s pregnant belly, skin stretched tight and full.  He peppered little kisses all along the way, worshiping everything it meant to be bonded, to be a father, the promise of all their future together.  He had been so inordinately proud when Kili started showing, the congratulatory toasts and backslapping of their friends not helping.  Thorin didn’t make matters any better by being so smug about it in front of the envoys from the other kingdoms.  Omegas were rare and the impending birth only helped to solidify the standing of the royal family.  Fili was considered a fine successor to Thorin, proven in battle and in fortitude, a dwarf to be respected and…

“…are you listening to me?”

Fili’s head popped up to meet Kili’s brown eyes.  “I am sorry, _Âzyungâl._   I was lost in thought.”

Kili laid his head back and rolled his eyes.  “If I wasn’t beached I would trounce you.”  He squirmed uncomfortably.  “Lay skin-to-skin with me?  Rub my back and feet?  Make your son stop kicking his mother?”

Fili smiled indulgently, ready to do anything Kili asked of him.  He pulled off his clothing, rolled his long-suffering mate onto his side and gently massaged his lower back, working knots out of over-used muscles and down his long legs, pressing swollen feet and ankles.  “Has he been busy today?”

“Oof!” Kili breathed.  “He starts kicking and won’t stop.”

Fili slid around to Kili’s front and directly addressed his belly.  “My little son,” he cooed, placing his hand where he could feel little feet pressing.  “You have to stop being unkind to your mother.  In a few days you will be out and I will teach you to hold a sword and to fight and drink and hunt and all the swear words you’re not supposed to say.”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Of course I’m enjoying this.  It’s wonderful!”

Kili groaned.  “Wonderful for you maybe.  I’m just fat and sore and tired.”

“Would you like to sleep for a while?”

“I think so.  Not like I can get up and do anything.”

Fili slid around to spoon his mate, so in love with him, so in love with the idea of being a father and bringing this new life into the world.  Kili was just tired and ready to get it over with.  The room was quiet with only the fire to illuminate them.  In a few moments they had both drifted off to sleep.

 

 

 

 

Kili woke a few hours later gasping and in pain, a tremendous pressure exerting itself on his distended abdomen.  He reached down a found his legs and the sheets under him to be wet and sticky.  “Thank Mahal,” he whispered.  “Fili!  Fili, wake up!”

Fili popped up behind him, hair disheveled, eyes gummy.  “What?! What’s wrong?”

“I need,” Kili huffed and rubbed his hand over his belly.  “Midwife, and Mum, get Mum.”

Fili was up off the bed and fully awake now.  “Did something happen?  Is the baby ok?”

“Everything’s fine,” Kili made grabby hands towards his nightshirt, which was hanging near the fire.  “The baby’s coming.”

“Now?!” Fili looked down at his legs as if he expected the baby to crown at any moment.

“Not now,” Kili was getting exasperated.  “Soon.  Midwife!  Mother!  Go, now!” he gestured towards the door. 

Fili bolted out into the hallway without pausing to put his boots on, running right into a very startled Hobbit.  “Bilbo!”

“Fili?” the rather flustered Royal Consort struggled to right himself.  “What’s wrong?”

“Baby!  Now!”  For all his solidity on the field of battle the young Prince of Erebor was starting to panic.  What if the baby came before he could get back with the midwife?  What if something happened while Kili was alone? 

“Oh!  Right!”  Bilbo looked just as alarmed.  “Thorin’s in the council chambers, your mother is usually there.  I’ll go now.”

“Thank you!”  Fili took off at a run and dashed down the halls until he came to the part of the mountain where the hospital wing was.  Bursting through the doors he quickly located the midwife.  She had been checking in on Kili every day now for the past two weeks and was not at all surprised when a near incoherent father-to-be burst in and started waving his hands frantically. 

“Did his water break?” she asked, gathering things she needed into a basket.  “What about contractions?”

“Yes!  Um, I don’t know?”  Fili wasn’t sure about the contractions.  How was he supposed to be able to tell?

“I will go now and see what there is to see,” she patted him on the arm.  “Why don’t you get Oin and ask him to come?”

“Oin, yes, get Oin,” Fili panted.  Why would they need Oin?  Was Kili in danger?  He tracked down the old healer and begged him to come, despite Oin’s assurances that he really wouldn’t be needed, at least not for some time yet.  “Please?  I have to get back there!”

“Fine, fine,” Oin swatted him away.  The infirmary was quiet anyway he might as well stop in and see if anyone needed sedation, most likely Fili.  “You go, I’ll follow.”

By the time Fili made it back to their rooms Thorin, Dis, Balin and Bilbo were already there, the other members of The Company just starting to arrive.  It was dwarven tradition that the families and close friends of the expectant parents gather to wait together, as much to keep the father occupied and out of the way as anything else.  Thorin nodded in the direction of the bedroom door.  “You can go in, nothing will be happening for a while yet.”  He had been present at the boy’s birthings and vividly remembered Dis breaking two fingers on his left hand during a contraction. 

Fili tentatively cracked open the bedroom door and peered inside as if expecting the baby to already be there.  He was surprised to see Kili dressed in loose trousers and tunic, standing and leaning his hands against the wall, breathing hard.  “Kili?  Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

His mother turned and smiled at him.  “You’re just in time.  Kili needs to walk for a while to help ease the pressure until he’s ready.  You can help.”

 

 

 

Fili helped his now huffing and nervous mate walk slow laps up and down the hall outside of their rooms, every small while stopping to lean and breath as another contraction started.  He would rub Kili’s back and murmur words of love and encouragement while Dis and the midwife watched, but he quickly learned not to hold his mate’s hand while it was happening.  “You’re so strong, and so beautiful, I am so proud of you my love…” Fili gently whispered, silently willing all of his strength and resilience into his other, his One.

“You are a horrible bastard,” Kili replied, eyes squeezed shut.  “When I am back on my feet I am going to put your stones in a vise and squeeze them until they pop!”

“Of course you are,” Fili rubbed his back gently. 

“I think you should be forced to squeeze a lead ingot through your…  _oof!”_

As another contraction comes and goes and the midwife placed a hand on Kili’s shoulder.  “They are getting close.  Let’s get you into bed, the pushing will start soon.”

Fili helped him back to the bedroom but was quickly shoved back out into the sitting room with Thorin and the others.  “Can’t I stay?  I could help.”

“No!”  Kili looked at his wits end.  “I don’t want you to watch me squeeze something that big out of _there!”_

“Come on lad,” Dwalin carefully steered him back to the sofa where he was surrounded by friends, only Oin, Ori and the midwife’s helpers going past the door now.  They told stories and placed wagers on the time and size and Bofur sang until the first sounds of Kili pushing in earnest filtered through the door.  Fili felt a wretched pang of fear shoot through him.  “Is that, I mean, is he…?”

Bombur raised a small toast to the room.  “Won’t be long now.”  He and his wife had ten children and he was an experienced hand at this.

The cries were agonizing, along with the encouraging voices of Dis and the midwife, they could hear a lot of activity.  At one point Oin and Ori emerged to report that everything was going as expected and Kili was doing fine.  Fili absolutely did not believe them.

“Fili!” he could hear his mate’s cry.  “I want Fili so I can kill him for doing this to me!”

Fili leaped up off the couch only to be pressed back down by firm hands.  “Aye ye want nothin’ to do with what’s happenin’ in there,” Gloin commented.  “Take yer life in yeh hands walkin’ through that door.”

“But he needs me!” Fili insisted.

“Your mother broke my fingers giving birth to you,” Thorin commented.  “And when your brother was born she picked your father up and threw him into the wall so hard his head made a dent.”  The others laughed around him.

Finally, after an excruciatingly long push, they heard the sound they had been waiting for, the loud, strong cry of a new life thoroughly objecting to being brought into this world.  In the sitting room they cheered and toasted and hammered Fili on the back in congratulations.  “That’s a healthy set of lungs, no doubt about it,” Bofur chimed happily. 

A few minutes later Dis emerged, a swaddled bundle in her arms.  “Fili, would you like to meet your daughter?”

“My…”  Fili stood and reached out his arms.  _“A girl?_   Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure!” Dis laughed.  Fili parted the blanket to look down at a very grumpy-looking baby with a tuft of dark hair.

“Oh, Mahal and Yavanna, we are blessed,” Fili breathed.  _“My baby girl!”_   Tears started slipping down his face. 

Dis left them to go back into the bedroom with a stern admonishment not to let the infant get cold.  Fili settled into a chair near the fire.  “Hello, baby,” he cooed.  “Hello my little daughter.”  So focused was he on this new life in his arms he didn’t hear the voices behind the door.  It was not until he heard Kili cry out that his head snapped up.  “What’s wrong?  Thorin?”

His uncle strode over to the door and peeked in with caution, only to have it slammed back in his face.  _“Out!”_

They all stared, listening to what sounded like Kili pushing again.  “But the baby’s already out!”  Fili was almost frantic now, the baby growing fussy in his arms.  “What’s happening to Kili?”

Suddenly they heard the sound of _another_ voice loudly objecting its introduction into the world.  “Well bless me!” Bofur exclaimed.  “Did ya hear that?  Two babies!”

In short order Dis emerged again holding another sleepy baby, this one with a tuft a golden hair like his father.  “This one’s a boy,” she said, handing him to Thorin, who looked just as dumbstruck as Fili.

“Are there… any more?” Fili asked hesitantly. 

“It does not appear so,” Dis answered.  “The midwife is as surprised as I am.  Now I have to go back, we have a lot to do yet before you can go in.  Keep them close and don’t let them get cold.”

“How is Kili?”  Fili ached to go inside, bring the babies in on the bed and just lay next to Kili and watch them all sleep.

“He’s doing fine.  He’s strong and is expressing a desire to throw you off the front gate.”

They settled in around the fire and Fili wondered at how he was blessed with not one but two healthy babes, his beautiful consort, his friends and family surrounding him.  Balin stood and patted him on the shoulder.  “I think it’s time we made an announcement.  Congratulations to the both of you.”  He slipped out of the room taking Gloin with him and it wasn’t long before they heard the sound of a horn blowing.

Thorin looked up and smiled.  “I have not heard that horn blow since… well, since I was young.”   

“What is it?”  Fili did not remember seeing any horn in the mountain.

“It is the Horn of the Maker and it sits in a cavern at the very top of the mountain,” Thorin stroked the baby he was holding.  “It is only blown on very momentous occasions.  There are few left who could do it.”  Soon they felt more then heard an answering rumble roll softly through the mountain. 

“Dale?” asked Dori.

“Aye think so,” Dwalin commented.  “Ravens will be going out to all the kingdoms.  Mahal and Yavanna have seen fit to doubly bless the Line of Durin on this day.”

For a while they all just sat and watched the babies yawn, squirm and scrunch their faces until Bofur quietly asked, “Did you pick out names yet?”

“Nali, after our Da,” Fili answered.  We were so sure of a boy but now we’ll have to find a girl’s name as well.”

The door clicked open and Dis poked her head out.  “You can come in now.”

Servants left the bedchamber carrying away soiled bedding and nightclothes and Fili and Thorin entered, carrying the babes.  Kili was propped up in the bed looking tired but rather proud of himself.  Fili leaned over and kissed him gently.  “I love you, I love you, I love you.”  Their daughter squirmed in his arms, her face scrunching up.  “I think she’s hungry.”

He handed Kili the infant and took the other from Thorin to wait his turn at the breast.  Their mother sat at Kili’s side and helped him start nursing.  “She likes it,” Fili murmured.  “Good appetite on that one.”

Assured that Kili’s milk was starting to flow Thorin, Dis and the midwife slipped quietly out of the room.  There would be time for grandparents and celebrations later.  Right now the little family made up just by the four of them needed to be together, just them.  “I think she’s full,” Kili said.  “Put her up on your shoulder while I nurse her brother.”  They traded and Fili put his daughter up on his shoulder and gently patted her back until a loud burp sounded. 

“Oh yeah, she’s your daughter,” Fili laughed.  He lowered her back into his arms and she yawned and scrunched her eyes tight.  “She looks so much like you.”

Kili lifted their son to his shoulder to burp him but they were surprised when a loud rumble sounded from his backside instead.  “Well that leaves no doubt about who your daddy is, does it?”

They both looked at each other and started to laugh.  “I am so happy,” whispered Fili.

“I am so sore,” whispered Kili.

“Oh!  My love, I am sorry!”  Fili laid both babies carefully into the bassinet at the side of the bed, letting the babes snuggle into each other contentedly.  “Let me help you.”  He got everything shifted around until Kili was comfortable on his side where he could see the babes and then slid into bed behind him.

“Thank you,” Fili whispered.  “Thank you for my children, thank you for not giving up.  I would never be here without you.”

“This is everything I wanted,” Kili murmured.  “You, these little ones, in a safe place surrounded by people who want and love us.  I will never ask for more than this.”

“Mmmm…”  Fili hummed in agreement into his hair and in the quiet, in the darkness and dancing firelight they drifted off to sleep. 

 

 

_fin_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A heartfelt Thank You to phoebe-artemis for helping me name Kili & Fili's baby daugter Hildiridr, in honor of Kili's friend Hilgot who took care of him.
> 
> There was a lot of material not fitting in here, about Fili and Kili's formal courtship, the grotto, and the aftermath of their bonding. I will post those in a side-chapter.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Feedback is welcome and appreciated!!!

**Author's Note:**

> I meant for this to be a quick read but the boys had other ideas. Thank you for reading, please leave comments. Namaste


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